John Wright Stanly House

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The John Wright Stanly House
by Jerry L . Cross
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TO THE RESEARCHER
This report was compiled from the published sources in­dicated
and from original records held by the North Carolina
Sta~e Archives. Unauthorized reproduction of the entire re­port
is expressly prohibited. Permission is hereby granted
to publish brief extracts from this work. This authorization
is not to be construed as a surrender of copyright, literary
right, or any other property right that is or may be vested
in the State of North Carolina •
911{?> -l. -l7
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The John Wright Stanly House
An Interpretation of the House and Grounds
During the Occupancy of
John Wright Stanly with a Postscript
Concerning the Visit of
President George Washington
Submitted by
Jerry L. Cross
January 12, 1987
Research Branch
North Carolina Division of Archives and History
Table of Contents • Foreword i
The John Wright Stanly House: An Interpretation 1
Postcript 13
Footnotes 17
Appendixes 21
A. Selections from Journal of William Attmore, 1787
B. Inventory: Personal Estate of John Wright Stanly , 1789
C. Maps of New Bern
1 . Sauthier, 1769
2 . Town Plan, 1779
3. Sanborn, 1888, 1893, 1898
4 . Gray, 1882
D. Illustrations
1 . Stanly House, ca . 1862
2 . Stanly Rouse, ca. 1920
3. Stanly House, restored, front view
4 . Stanly House, restored, rear view
5. Stanly House, interior, 1941
6 . Stanly House, stairway, 1941
7. Corbitt House, exterior (2 views)
8 . Corbitt House , doorway (2 views)
9 . Corbitt House , stairway (w views)
10. Corbitt House, interior details (8 views)
11. Old City Tavern (Alexandria), doorway
12 . Contemporary floor plans (4 views)
13. Graeme Park, interior
14. Belmont, interior
15 . Dulaney House , interior
16. Robert Townsend Hoe House , interior
17. Bellair , interior
18 . Powell House, drawing room furnishings
19. ~olythe Houve, front view
Selected Bibliography 59
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Foreword
The Tryon Palace Commission accepted the John Wright Stanly House as a
gift from the New Bern Library Association on November 4 , 1965 . Upon recom­mendation
of the architectural consultant and concurrence of the contractors,
the commission ' s executive committee decided to remove all later additions to
the structure and restore only the original house . The historic home was
moved to the Tryon Palace Complex in December , 1966 , where the resto~ation
was carried out .
The decision to restore only the original house obligated the interpre­tation
to focus on John Wr i ght Stanly , about whom little actually was known.
Extensive research efforts resulted in two publications by the Tryon Palace
Commission. The first , by Gertrude S . Carraway, The Stanly (Stanley) Family
and the historic John Wright Stanly House (1969), chronicles the Stanly fami­ly
, traces the various ownerships of the house, mentions the physical uses as
Union headquarters in the Civil War and subsequently a Union hospital (Convent
of Mercy) , anddiscusses the restoration and furnishing for exhibition. The
second book, Profile of a Patriot: The Story of John Wright Stanly, Revolu ­tionary
War Privateer (1983) , by Mary Stanley Hessel , is primarily a biography
with emphasis on Stanly ' s career as a shipowner and merchant. What little
there is about the house appears to have been taken from Miss Carraway's earli­er
publication.
From the works of Carraway and Hessel , a reasonably good portrait of John
Wright Stanly and his family emerged, but there was no information on which to
base an interpretation of the house itself, particularly the interior, as occu­pied
in the late eighteenth century. Although the house was furnished with con­temporary
furniture, including Stanly and Spaight family heirlooms, and has been
opened to the public for over fifteen years, many questions have been raised in
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regard to interior layout , room functions , and actual furnishings of the
structure in the 1780s . In a effort to update the programs of the Tryon
Palace Complex, Kay Williams , administrator, requested the Research Branch
of the Division of Archives and History to conduct an investigation for any
information that might help to answer some of the questions .
The following report focuses on John Wright Stanly and his association
with the house . No effort was made to detail his life and career , for to do
so would be to restate merely what Carraway and Hessel have already done so
well. Since only the original portion of the house was restored , which ob­ligates
interpretation to center on that time period, neither was there an
attempt to trace the history beyond the occupancy of John Wright Stanly.
This study constitutes a supplement to the Carraway and Hessel publications
and is intended to augment, not displace, the information in those accounts.
One finds a paucity of data in the documentary records ; consequently,
this report contains few real conclusions . Instead , a comparative technique
(explained in the text) was employed to draw some suggestions and possibili­ties
for interpretation of the Stanly House. Other researchers , using the
same technique and materials , may produce alternatives. This report is in no
way a definitive study but is intended to stimulate ideas and discussions
through which a representative interpretation of the John Wright Stanly House
may be achieved.
While no deliberate attempt was made initially to carry this research be­yond
the death of John Wright Stanly , some questions did emerge in regard to a
long-accepted tenet, the lodging of George Washington in the house in April of
1791. An unexpected challenge to a significant segment of the structure' s his­tory
could not be ignored because of project limitations . Subsequent research
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yielded some interesting results which are contained in a postscript to
this study. Perhaps it too will be beneficial in the continuing effort to
interpret the history of the Stanly House as accurately as possible •
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The John Wright Stanly House: An Interpretation
John Wright Stanly (1742-1789) came to New Bern from Phildelphia in
1772 and began to establish himself as a merchant and ship owner. On June
24, 1773 he married Ann Cogdell, daughter of Richard Cogdell, and shortly
afterwards , they moved into a new house on East Front Street where Stanly
also had a warehouse and wharf. 1 Despite the advent of the American Revolu-tion
which brought intense fluctuations to his economic enterprises, Stanly
generally prospered during those tumultuous years . By 1779, however, war-time
inflation was beginning to create fiscal chaos; continental currency
deflated rapidly and North Carolina issue followed closely behind .2 To help
stabilize his assets, Stanly began investing a large portion of his profits
in real estate. In 1779 and 1780 he purchased six additional lots in town ,
a portion of another lot , and over 770 acres of land outside of New Bern.3
Among the properties were the lots on which he was later to build his elegant
home.
On October 20 , 1779 Thomas Ogden sold lots 280, 281, 282, and 283 to
John Wright Stanly for f8 , 400 .4 The high selling price has led some resear ch-ers
to believe that a structure or partial structure was already on the prop­erty
when it was bought by Stanly.5 A closer analysis , however , suggests
that this was not the case. In 1783 the North Carolina General Assembly es-tablished
a scale of depreciation for the repayment of wartime debts. That
scale stated that by October, 1779, it took f.25 to equal f.l of the pre-
1. nf l at1. onary per1. od • 6 Using that formula , Stanly paid f.84 per lot for the
property. In 1773 he had paid f.l50 for his unimproved lot on East Front
Street, and that included nearly another half acre of water frontage; thus ,
the half- acre price of the lots in 1779 was essentially the equivalent to
that of a half acre in 1773, suggesting that no structures existed on the
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Middle/New Street lots in 1779. 7 Furthermore, the Sauthier Map of 1769 shows
only a wooded area where the house was later built, and for most of the 1770s ,
8 the key lots, 280 and 281, were encumbered by an unresolved mortgage. It
was unlikely that one would build on a lot for which he had no clear title.
With this information, and considering the extent to which Stanly was invest-ing
in land in 1779 and 1780, it seems logical to conclude that the half
block bet~een Middle and Hancock streets was purchased initially as invest-ment
with no other purpose in mind.
With General Cornwallis in Wilmington, and other southern ports under
British control in 1781, Stanly felt New Bern was vulnerable to attack . He
believed that his ownership of successful privateers and ardent support of
the American cause would make him a prime target if the town were invaded.
With his family in one ship and much of his household furniture in another ,
he set sail for Philadelphia . The Stanly family made the trip safely , but
the ship carrying furniture and belongings fell into British hands . It was
the replacement furniture, bought in Philadelphia, that they brought back to
9 New Bern when they returned in the fall of 1782.
Stanly probably learned while in Philadelphia that his home , warehouse ,
and wharf on East Front Street had been virtually destroyed by a Bri tish ex-peditionary
force. He may have begun formulating plans for his new home
about that time, but his wartime losses had not been fully calculated even by
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1782, and inflation had risen to more than 800 percent . Under those con-ditions,
it seems unlikely that he initiated any plans for construction. In-
11 stead, he and the family moved into a house he already owned on Broad Street.
Stanly spent much of 1783 in Philadelphia and Charleston reestablishing
h . ha b . 12 ~s mere nt usmess • Passage of the depreciation scale for repayment of
debts and regulation of suits for indebtedness helped to stablize the fiscal
situation somewhat, and by the end of the year , John Wright Stanly turned his
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attention to the four lots on which he planned to build a new home. The
first step came in December when he received a quit claim from Francis
Fontaine of Edisto, South Carolina, for lots 280 and 281, which gave him a
clear title and removed all obstacles to construction.
13
Family tradition has long maintained that John Wright Stanly employed
John Hawks, architect for Tryon Palace, to design his new home, but no
evidence has been found either to support or deny the claim. 14 Considering
his long standing popularity in New Bern, it would seem possible for Hawks
to have put together the overall design of the Stanly House, but it is clear
that the supervising architect borrowed heavily from elements of style pub-lished
in English architectural pattern books. Thomas T. Waterman noted in
1941 that the interior of the Stanly House bore an unmistakable Philadelphia
influence, and it was through that port that pattern books and adaptations of
1 had d . 11 . . h Am . 1 . 15
sty es ma e an especLa y strong ~pact ~n t e er~can co on~es.
Some interior style elements incorporated in the Stanly House, particular-
.ly the restored drawing room (parlor), had been popular in the general Phila-delphia
area two decades before John Wright Stanly was born. The drawing
room at Graeme Park (at Horsham near Philadelphia), built in 1721, features
an overmantle with broken scroll pediment and pedestal, full pediments over
the doors, and dentilated cornice, almost identical to those in the Stanly
House. 16 The elements maintained popularity, appearing with some embellish-ments
in later Philadelphia homes such as Belmont (1743) and the Powell House
(1768). 17 Expanding southward the features were installed in the fine Robert
Townsend Hoe House and the elaborate Dulaney House, both in Alexandria,
"i . . 18 v rg~n~a. Beginning with Belmont, the above-named houses exhibit a mantle
style similar to the mantel in the drawing room of the Stanly Rouse, and that
element appeared even closer to home with construction of Bellair near New
Bern in 1775. Bellair also exhibited a simplified version of the overmantle
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found in the other homes. 19
Perhaps the best evidence of a pattern book design and Philadelphia
influence for the Stanlv House can be seen through a comparison with the
Corbitt aouse (1774) in Odessa, Delaware. The interior of that structure
was executed by Robert May of Philadelphia; yet Waterman later noted that
"the mantel and overmantel are almost counterparts of those in the west
20 parlor of the Stanly House ." The same can be said of almost identical
stairways in the two houses . Both have three runs with square landings; a
balustrade with a richly molded railing terminating in a volute over the
newel; wall railings paralleling the balustrade; balusters of identical
shape ~urned in walnut or mahogany, and stair ends carved with fine , baroque,
Chippendale brackets.21
Exteriors of the two houses also suggest something of a common author-ship
. Both are basically two stories with a five-bay front typical of
Georgian architecture, but the deck- on-hip- roo£ capped with a balustrade,
ridge chimneys, and refinement of detail elevate each into a separate cate-gory
comparable to the quality work of Philadelphia craftsmen. Both houses
exhibit front entrance doorways in similar Doric style with virtually iden-tical
arched transoms and are laid out in the center hall, four-room plan
with the elegant staircase in each rising from the r ear of a wide hall. 22
There is no evidence that John Wright Stanly or John Hawks (if he did
design the Stanly House) ever saw the Corbitt House as they journeyed to and
from Philadelphia; however, the Delaware River ·valley and Philadelphia in­fluences
on the Stanly House are unmistakable. 23 It seems most likely that
those who designed the interiors and exteriors of both houses used a common
source (perhaps a pattern book) and then added personalized touches for
special effects. The full pediments over the lower windows in the Stanly
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Rouse , for instance, do not appear on the Corbitt House, nor are they com -
mon at all in the Delaware River tradition . They may have been adapted from
the Hudson River style, traces of which are evident in the Stanly House, ac-cording
to Waterman, but they may also reflect the particular taste of the
architect or even John Wright Stanly himself . 24
The size, style, and detail of the house required a considerable period
of time for construction. Not before late in 1784 or, more likely, early in
1785 d "d h s 1 . h . h 25
1 t e tan ys move 1nto t e1r new ome. A daughter , Margaret Cog-dell
(1787) , and a son, Thomas Turner (1789) , were born in the Stanly House,
bringing the number of family occupants to eight (six children and two
adults). 26 Both John Wright and Ann Stanly died prematurely in 1789 after no
more than a four and a half year residency in their new home. No records de-scribing
life in the house or how the various r ooms were used have been found .
For certain there were bedrooms, a dining room , and a "tea room" or parlor.
The latter was identified in 1787 by William Attmore, a visitor in the Stanly
27 home .
How the rooms were laid out remains conjecture , but a close scrutiny of
the inventory of John Wright Stanly's personal estate, comparison with floor
pl ans and layouts of similar Georgian dwellings, and application of the few
known facts brought forth some representative ideas. It must be remembered,
however, that while the furnishings in the Stanly House may be determined,
the function and arrangement of each room cannot be . Information contained
herein represents only the times, comparable social status , and what was pos-sible,
not probable. In no way should the discussion of rooms , furnishings ,
and outbuildings be construed as an authentic depiction of the Stanly House
in the 1780s •
A study of Virginia homes somewhat earlier than the Stanly House but of
similar floor plans, and whose owners occupied a socio-economic status
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~omparable to John Wright Stanly, revealed an interesting pattern as to the
continuity of room functions over several decades . A random selection
(Wythe House [ca . 1760], York Hall [1740], Gunston Hall [ca. 1750] , Wilton
[ca . 1730]) showed two of the four to contain three rooms in common on the
first floor: dining room, parlor, and reception (drawing) room. In the
other two (Gunston Hall and Wilton), the library apparently doubled in func-tion
as a parlor , but each also had a drawing room and a dining room. 28 As
to the fourth room, research failed to uncover functions in the Wythe House
and York Hall , but at Gunston Hall and Wilton, the room was used as a chamber
(probably guest bedroom). 29 The limited study thus seems to indicate that
the downstairs of homes with a central hall and four - room plan contained a
dining room, drawing room, either a parlor or a library, and an optional room
that· as often as not was a chamber. There were not, however, any signs of
uniformity as to which room was designed for which function and no proof that
Stanly followed the traditional pattern in the post- Revelutionary era. 30
The best description of a typical central hall and four -room plan is
the one for Wythe House . That structure, located in Williamsburg , bears a
striking exterior resemblance to the Stanly House, and the latter's interior
may have been laid out along similar lines.
The door on the left of the main entrance opens into the parlour
[elsewhere called the drawing room] , which has the dimensions of fif ­teen
feet six inches wide and eighteen feet four inches long, and is
done in old ivory. • • •
The sitting room [parlor] adjoins the parlour [drawing room] at
the rear, and this measures thirteen feet six inches by eighteen feet
four inches. Like the drawing room, it has three windows and a door
upon one side, which opens beneath the stairway into the hall.
The dining room on the east front of the dwelling is delightful
and has the same ivory dado as the parlour [drawing room] across the
hall. A rich modillion cornice accords with the colour of the wain­scot,
and the walls are decorated with antique paper.31
• Waterman ' s 1941 description of the interior of the Stanly House ~ug -
gests possible similarities in room layout:
The east parlor {left front entrance] has , unfortunately, lost its
original mantl e , and that replacing it is of another period. Its
wall finish, however, is richer than the finish of its balancing
room, with full height wood paneling instead of the plaster walls
above a dado .32
The richer wall finish with full height panel ing suggests a more formal
area such as a drawing, or reception, room. The balancing room may have
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been the dining room as at the Wythe House or a formal parlor as at York
Ha11 . 33 That the Stanly House had both a dining room and parlor is verified
in the journal of William Attmore , the 1787 guest of John Wright Stanly:
Thursday, November 29. Went at two O' Clock to Mr . John W. Stanly's
to dine ••• about half past four the Judge and Mrs . Iredell came,
then we sat down to dinner . • We dropt the subject [of paper cur-rency]
on going into the Tea Room, where more general topics took
p 1 ace •• •• 34
The tea room was a parlor where the host and hostess engaged their guests in
conversation or sometimes provided entertainment. Attmore ' s description sug-gests
that the parlor and dining room may have been adjoining rooms on the
same side of the hallway with a direct entrance from one to the other . Yet ,
str angely, in none of the four houses taken for representative study was this
the actual case.
The optional room on the first floor of the Stanly House is diff i cult
to identify. The inventory of Stanly's property appears to have been taken on
a room- by- room basis but was then compiled into a continuous l isting for the
court record . If a methodical account were taken, no effort to follow the
same procedure in drafting the court document was followed ; consequently , while
some furnishings can clearly be placed in certain rooms, the room layout of the
house cannot be determined from the inventory . One can, however , determine
• with reasonable accuracy the items in the dwelling from those in outbuildings.
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The best clue for the optional room comes from the following sequence of
items in the inventory:
One Mahogany Curtain Bedstead and Sacking Bottom
Two Bureau Tables
Two Dressing Glasses
Two rice Sifters (Wire)
Two wash Stands
One easy Chair with one chintz & one cheque Cover
One Blanket 35
One pr And Irons with brass Fronts
The andirons with brass fronts also appear in rooms that can be identified
as the drawing room, parlor, and dining room . Their presence seemed to be
an effort for symmetry or uniformity among the downstairs rooms. The inventory
suggests that andirons in the upstairs rooms had brass tops , but not brass
36 fronts. Thus , the fourth room on the first floor possibly was a chamber for
the many important guests and associates who spent the night in the Stanly
home.
The inventory is less clear as to the furnishings in each room, but one
overall fact did emerge. Considering the size of the house and the status of
John Wright Stanly, there were relatively few pieces of " heavy" furniture ,
items that could not be moved with relative ease . The following appear to have
been in the home at the time the inventory was taken:
1 mahogany sideboard
2 mahogany dining tables
2 mahogany bedsteads
2 other bedsteads (not described)
2 bureau tables
1 mahogany sofa
1 mahogany breakfast table
1 table for china (possibly mahogany)
1 pine table 37 1 desk and bookcase
In addition, there were two desks , two bedsteads, a piano , a mahoghany
table, and four pine tables apparently scattered in outbuildings located on the
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38 house lots. Absence of much " heavy" furniture, and the fact that dishes were
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stored in baskets, suggests the possibility that John Wright Stanly had not
completed the furnishing of his new home before his untimely death. 39 Space
created by the lack of large items seems to have been filled by the placement
of chairs , forty- five of which are listed in the inventory. One other fact
is also clear from a survey of the personal estate: Stanly obviously had a
preference for mahogany furniture, much of which came from Philadel phia.
40
Besides the items named above, other mahogany furnishings included a cradle ,
two t eab oard s , two card tab le s, and t hl.. rty-seven o f t h e f arty- f.l. Ve c h al.. rs . 41
To try and refurbish the rooms from the inventory would be impossible to do
with an¥ degree of accuracy; however , for purposes of information, illustra-tions
of the restored drawing room of the Powell House in Philadelphia, to
which Waterman favorably compared the drawing room of the Stanly House, have
been appended to this essay .
42
Some of the items bear similarities to those
listed in Stanly ' s inventor y.
A close scrutiny of the inventory indicates that several outbuildings
helped form a complex of structures on the home lots. One was a kitchen , an-other
a stable, a third was a building for storage , and perhaps even a four t h
structure was used for domestic skills (spinning, weaving , etc. ) .
43
The 1888
Sanborn Map of New Bern shows three, two- story outbuildings, two of which may
h ave b een orl..g J.. na1 • 44 The third structure, a stable, was obviously a recent
replacement since it does not appear on Gray ' s 1882 map of the city.45 An
1862 photograph of the Stanly House sheds a little more light on the possible
arrangement of outbuildings.
The photograph shows a two- story, slightly rectangular building to the
46
right rear of the house . This structure appears to be in the same location
as the one labeled 11stor.age" on the 1888 Sanborn Map . The latter building had
• a one- story wing on the west end, but it does not appear that the 1862 facility
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47 had such an appendage . In the photograph , the outbuilding faces the
rear of the main house and has a stair leading to a second-floor door
directl y above the ground - floor entrance . No definite function for this
structure was found, but the presence of a small chimney opens the pos-sibility
that it may have been the building housing a considerable q u an-tity
of general merchandise, a pine writing desk, ink stand , a Morocco
leather paper a nd ink case , a poplar bedstead and covers , and a pair of
andirons with tongs and shove1. 48
10
The fondness for symmetry in Georgian architecture suggested a parallel
flanking structure on the opposite side of the Stanly House . The angle of
the 1862 photograph failed to expose that area , but the 1888 Sanborn Map de-picts
a building about 25 feet by 18~ feet in just such a position . When
the wing of the structure on the right rear of the house is removed (and it
apparently had been added between 1862 and 1888) , the two outbuildings are
almost identical in size and shape and are equidist ant from the main house.
Altogether they form a perfect symmetrical pattern of a dwelling with match­ing
flanker buildings common in Georgian architecture, i . e. , Tryon Palace. 49
Both flankers were of frame construction , and the one depicted i n the 1862
photograph had a hip roof ma tching that of the Stanly House , fur thering the
possibility of contemporary construction . The Sanborn Map does not identify
the function of the left flanker building , but the size suggests the possi-bility
of a kitchen . Like its counterpart , it faced the rear of the main
house, as proven by its address of 218~ Neuse (New) Street . 50 The inventory
of Stanly ' s estate clearly indicates a well - furnished, detached kitchen, and
since its matching flanker is positively identified as storage in 1888, it
would seem most likely that this structure to the left rear of the house was
the kitchen . If these two buildings on the Sanborn Map are not the originals ,
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then extreme care was taken in erect~ng replacements to maintain the symmetri-cal
appearance of the Georgian era, a prospect somewhat unlikely in the na-tionalistic
period after 1800 and even more improbable in the later Victorian
era.
The 1888 Sanborn Map shows a stable bordering Neuse (New) Street, a
short distance from the intersection of Hancock Street . 57 This, however, was
a replacement as mentioned earlier . In the 1862 photograph, a large frame
building can be deteched some distance to the rear but almost directly behind
the Stanly House . This may well have been a stable/barn, but these outbuild-ings
usually have shorter lives than others and it may or may not be the
original . Stanly would have needed a stable of considerable size to house as
many as six horses, at least two cows· and calves, feed for livestock, and the
har nesses and 1 ~. very f or trave1 ~. ng . 52 The inventory also mentions four riding
vehicles, two cotton gins, four spinning wheels , along with a large quantity
of damaged and unused dishware and large pieces of furniture such as a bedstead,
p i ano, ·t a ble s, d es k , and e i g h t w.~ d sor c h a~. s. 53 That type and number of
items would have been difficult, if not impossible, to store in a stable with
the quantity of livestock Stanly owned ; consequently , there may have been a
fourth major outbuilding that served a dual purpose of storage and as a room
for spinning and weaving.
While logical conjecture about the Stanly House and grounds may be of-fered
, few conclusions can be made. One fact cannot be doubted. ·with the dis-use
and deterioration of Tryon Palace, the Stanly House emerged in the 1780s as
54 the best and most elegant residence in New Bern. Built at a cost of $20,000
in contemporary silver dollars, the modern equivalency of about $518,000, it
ranked as one of the finest homes erected in eighteenth- century North Carolina .
55
As stated at the outset, this discussion of the Stanly House and its en-virons
lacks sufficient documentary verification; it is but one interpretation
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based on the available information . The written record is relatively silent,
and destruction of the original site eliminated any evidence that archae­ological
investigation might have produced . With it may have gone the last
opportunity for a better understanding of eighteenth- century life in the
John Wright Stanly House •
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Postscript
John Wright Stanly's death in 17-89 deprived him of the opportuni ty to
meet the first president of the United States when the latter visited New
Bern two years later. For over a cent ury, however, the claim that George
Washington stayed in the Stanly home on the nights of April 20 and 21, 1791 ,
has been an integral part of the structure's history. Accepted generally as
truth, no one seems to have questioned its validity . In the course of this
study, serious doubts emerged in regard to the Washington story. It was ,
and is , not the intent of this postscript to discredit time honored tradi-tion
, but historical honesty and professional objectivity demand that the
basis of those doubts be equally considered . Tradition plays an important
role in histor y and should not be dismissed summarily; neither should it be
allowed to flourish uncontested in the light of evidence to the contrary .
Questions concerning the alleged Washington stay in the Stanl y House be-gan
with the discovery of a letter from George Washington to William Washing-ton
dated January 8, 1791. William, a distant kinsman, had invited the presi-dent
to stay at his home in Charleston during the tour to that city. The
president replied as follows :
I cannot without involving myself in inconsistency; as I have determined
to pursue the same plan in my Southern--as I did in my Eastern visit,
which was not to incommode any private family by taking up my quarters
with them during my journey. It leaves me unencumbered by engagements ,
and by a uniform adherence to it , I shall avoid giving umbrage to any,
by declining all such invitations . 56
Before he even began his southern tour , Washington made clear his intent to
use only public accomodations where they existed, and t hough a number of ex-ceptions
were forced due to lack of such facilities, a scrutiny of his journal
clearly shows that he tried to follow his stated policy religiously. On oc-casion
this meant enduring more discomfort and inconvenience than would have
• had h ed
. . . . 57 been necessary e accept pr1vate 1nv1tat1ons •
In his own journal Washington ' s New Bern entries mention only " exceed­ing
good lodgings. " 58 No name or further identification is given. Else-where
in his account, the president was careful to name his host on those
times when circumstances dictated that he stay in private dwellings . The
absence of such identification seems significant . An account of the presi-dent
' s visit to New Bern was carried in Dunlap ' s American Daily Advert i ser
(Philadelphia), which seems to have been the "official" newspaper covering
the southern tour . Dunl ap ' s included minute details from the names of the
14
New Bern escort to all fifteen toasts given at the banquet in the Palace , but
nothing in regard to Washington ' s quarters. 59 Likewise, the minutes of St.
John ' s (Masonic) Lodge No. 2 record that a committee waited on the president
60 " at his lodgings" and presented him with a welcoming address. Again , no
identification of said lodgings is to be found . Thus, there is no contempo-rary
written evidence to indicate that President Washington stayed in the
John \-Jright Stanly House . In fact, the available information would suggest
that in New Bern he followed his stated policy of using public accomodations.
There was a number of taverns and inns, some most suitable, in New Bern
during the last two decades of the eighteenth century. Between 1784 and 1798 ,
New Bern enjoyed tremendous growth. The population more than doubled and new
61 constructions were frequent . In addition to being the county seat of Craven
and the largest town in North Carolina , it was also the busiest port in the
state . Consequently , New Bern hosted numerous overnight visitors during those
years, some of whom left written accounts of the town. Among those were Judge
James Iredell of Edenton , William Attmore of Philadelphia, J . F. D. Smythe of
England, and Francisco de Miranda of Spain. All stayed in public lodgings
• though they often dined with prominent residents of the town . Miranda wrote
~ in 1783 that he stayed at the popular establishment of Joseph Oliver on Mid­dle
Street for about eight shillings a day, "which price seemed to me ex­tremely
low considering the neatness and good appearance of the place. " 62
Neither Smythe (1784), Iredell (several visits) , nor Attmore (1787) clearly
identified their lodgings , but their writings leave little doubt that they
stayed in public facilities. 63 Besides Oliver ' s, other known establishments
for the 1780s and 1790s were Monsieur Hero's , Sylvester Pendleton's , and an
unnamed (not yet found) one near Craven and South Front streets . Alonzo
Dill, author of a history of eighteenth- century New Bern, adds: "After the
adoption of the [U.S.] Constitution, some of these taverns were designated
with a federalist touch, as 'at the sign of the Golden Eagle' or ' at the
Sign of the Arms of the United States ' ."64 With a choice of such accommoda­tions,
it seems quite unlikely that President Washington would have deviated
from the policy he had been following on his tour .
15
As mentioned earlier , Washington wanted to avoid causing dissention among
local residents vying for the honor of being his host . To have stayed at the
Stanly House could have provoked umbrage among other prominent New Bernians
such as John Sitgreaves, judge of the federal District Court in New Bern , and
Major John Daves, first collector at the new customs house in New Bern , both
•
of whom were appointed to their positions by the president. 65 It was not Wash­ington
' s personal desire, nor would it have been politically expedient for the
Federalist party, to knowingly contribute to situations with possible results
of disaffection.
The information thus uncovered casts ominous doubts on the association of
George Washington and the Stanly House. The question remains as to how and
when the tradition came into existence, a query for which no definite answer
was found . Archibald Henderson, in his Washington ' s Southern Tour , 1791,
•
•
implies that the original of the president ' s reply to his welcoming add­ress
was given to "John G. Stanly, Esq., at whose house Washington was
entertained." His source apparently was a New Bern newspaper edited by
16
C. C. Clark, which Henderson did not identify nor date except to say "prior
to the War Between the States. "66 The fact that Stanly' s middle initial
was given incorrectly, along with the fact that Stanly died two years be­fore
the visit, almost certainly invalidates the accuracy of that source .
The earliest appearance of the tradition in print appears to be articles
printed in the New Bern Journal by Col. J ohn D. Whitford in 1882. Over a
period of many years, Whitford compiLed notes on the history of New Bern
and prepared several articles in the late nineteenth century. He seems to
be the first writer to delve into the life of John Wright Stanly, and sub­sequent
publications relied on his conclusions. 67
On what evidence Whitford based his statements remains a mystery . At
least two of his major points have been proven erroneous by the research
for this report . The Stanly House was not begun before the Revolution, or
even in 1779, but about 1784 , and Stanly did not return to New Bern in
August of 1781 but in the fall of 1782. Such errant research must also cast
doubts on Whitford's claim that Washington stayed in the Stanly House . Much
has been made of Washington's entry of "exceeding good lodgings" in New Bern.
The Stanly House no doubt was the most imposing residence at the time, but
J. F. D. Symthe noted a few years earlier that New Bern contained " several
exceedingly good and even elegant houses. "68 Thus, had Washington wished to
stay in a private resl.dence, he apparently had several "exceeding good lodg­ings"
from which to choose and the reference in no way specified any particu­lar
structure. Whether or not they, are the source of the tradition, the com­pilations
of John D. \-lhitford are at best questionable and caution must be
exercised in their u~age .
•
•
Footnotes
~ary Stanley Hessel, Profile of a Patriot: The Story of John
Wright Stanly, Revolutionary War Pr'ivateer'. Edited by Ann Ward Little.
(New Bern: Tryon Palace Coxmnission, 1983) , 11, 28- 29, 31, hereinafter
cited as Hessel; Profile of a Patriot; and Gertrude S. Carraway, The
Stanly (Stanley) Family 'and the historic John Wright Stanly House (New
Bern: Tryon Palace Coxmn'ission, 1969) , 10, hereinafter cited as Carraway,
The Stanly Family .
2Hessel, Profile of a Patriot, 68- 70, 79; Carraway , The Stanly .EaJI.lily ,
11-13; and Jerry L. Cross, "North Carolina Currency: Chaos and Deprecia­tion
1777- 1782." Report prepared for Research Branch, Division of Archives
and History, Raleigh, 1984 , p. 1, hereinafter cited as Cross, "North Caro­lina
Currency. "
3Hessel , Profile of a Patriot , 69- 70 . By the end of 1780, inflation
of currency had reached 200 percent . As illustration , Stanly paid f41 , 000
for 400 acres on Brice Creek. See also Cross, "North Carolina Currency,"
4.
4
craven County Deed Books , Office of the Register of Deeds, Craven
County Courthouse , New Bern, Deed Book 24, p. 32 , hereinafter cited as Craven
County Deed Book.
5carraway , The Stanly Family, 18. Miss Carraway also quotes an 1882
article in the New Bern Journal in which John D. Whitford contended that a
house on the corner lot was "coxmnenced before the Revolutionary War. "
6 Cross, "North Carolina Currency," 4. The scale is given in Walter
Clark (ed . ), The State Records of Nort h Carolina (Winston and Goldsboro :
State of North Carolina, 16 vols., 1895- 1906) , XXIV, 485 , hereinafter cited
as Clark, State Records.
7
For purchase of Front Street property, see Craven County Deed .Book 20 ,
p. 374.
8
See "A Plan of the Town of Newbern in Craven County, North Carolina,
Survey 'd & Drawn in 1769, by C. J. Sauthier" in Appendix C-1. Francis Fon­taine
of Edisto, South Carolina , formerly of New Bern, had placed lots 280
and 281 in a deed of trust to merchants John Clitheral and John Stevenson of
New Bern in 1753 . Both died before the trust was resolved , and James Clitheral,
son of John, then sold the lots to Thomas Ogden with the encumbered trust still
not settled . Not until December , 1783 , did Fontaine release all claim to the
lot, after the purchase by John Wright Stanly. See Craven County Deed Book 24,
p. 332 •
9Hessel, ·profile ·of a Patriot , 79-83 , 90; and Carraway, The Stanly Family ,
14 . For general fear in New Bern, see Alonzo Thomas Dill, Jr. , "Eight eenth
Century New Bern. A History of the Town and Craven County, 1700- 1800." The
•
•
18
North Carolina Historical Review , 8 parts. Part VII . New Bern During
the Revolution , XXIII (July, 1946) , 356- 357 , hereinafter cited as Dill,
" New Bern During the Revolution."
10Hessel shows cons i derable evidence to prove that Stanly did not
return to New Bern until the British began evacuating troops from the
southern states . Profile of a Patriot , 85- 90 . Whitford , however , con­tends
that Stanly returned to New Bern in August , 1781, to find his prop­erty
destroyed . John D. Whitford , "History of the Biblical Recorder and
Baptists in New Bern (with notes on the general history of New Bern and
Craven County) . " Typed manuscript (ca. 1900) in John D. Whitford Papers,
~C . 89~5 , State Archives , Raleigh , p . 1 35 , hereinafter cited as Wh itford,
"Historical Notes ." British forces under Major James Craig occupied New
Bern from August 19 to August 21, 1781 . For several days thereafter , they
remained in the Neuse River area destroying considerable property . It
seems unlikely that Stanly would return to face such danger . Whitford
seems to have confused the British invasion with Stanly ' s return. See Dill,
"New Bern During the Revolution ," 357 - 358. For inflation rate, see Cross,
"North Carolina Currency ," 4 .
11The site was one on which Dr . James B. Hughes built a large brick
mansion after the Ci vil War. Whitford , "Historical Notes ," 135.
12 Hessel , Profile of a Patriot , 94. See also letters from Thomas
Blount to John Gray Blount beaded Philadelphia, August 30, September 9 ,
1783 . Alice Barnwell Ke ith (ed.), The John Gray Blount Papers (Raleigh:
State Department of Archives and History , 1952) , I, 95, 102 .
13 Craven County Deed Book 24, p. 332 . See also Town Plan of New Bern ,
1779 , in Appendix C-2.
14 Carraway , The Stanly Family , 19; and Thomas Tileston Waterman and
Fran ces Benjamin Johnston, The Early Architecture of North Carolina (C hapel
Hill: The Un iversity of North Carolina Press, 1941), 33 - 34 , hereinafter
cited as Waterman , Early Architecture of North Carolina.
15waterman, Early Architecture of North Carolina , 34. For Philadelph­ia
as point of impact , see Fiske Kimball, Domestic Architecture of the
American Colonies and of the Early Republic (New York : Charles Scribner ' s
Sons , 1922) , 55- 58, hereinafter cited as Kimball, Domestic Architecture .
16Kimball, Domestic Architecture, 64 , 109 . See also Appendix D- 13 of
this report . Gra'eme""Park was constructed ten years before John Hawks was
born , thus providing more evidence of a pattern book influence on the Stanly
House even if Hawks were the architect . See Alonzo Thomas Dill, Governor
Tryon and His Palace (Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press ,
1955)' 111. •
17 Thomas Tileston Waterman , The Dwellings of Colonial America (Chapel
Hill : The University of North Carolina Press , 1950), 163-164, 171-174,
hereinafter cited as Waterman, Colonial Dwellings . See also Appendix D-14
of this report.
•
•
19
18 Waterman , Colonial Dwellings , 93-94 . See also Appendixes D- 15
and D- 16 of this report .
19 Waterman, Early Architecture of North Carolina, 34. See also
Appendix D- 17 of this report .
20waterman; ·colonial 'Dwellings, 166, and Early Architecture of North
Carolina, 34. See also George Fletcher Bennett, Early Architecture of
Delaware (Wilmington, Del.: Historical Press, Inc., 1932) , 89, 91, here­inafter
cited as Bennett , Early Architecture of Delaware; and Appendixes
D- 5 and D-10 of this report .
21waterman, Early Architecture
Earl y Architecture of Delaware, 87. •.
this report.
of North Carolina, 34; and Bennett,
See also Appendixes D-6 and D- 9 of
22waterman , Colonial Dwellings, 165-166 and Early Architecture of
North Carolina, 34; and Bennett, Early Architecture of Delaware, 84- 86 .
See also Appendixes D- 3, D- 4, D- 7, and D- 8 .
23For southern expansion of Philadelphia style, see examples in
Appendixes D- 11, D- 15 , D- 16, and D-17. That John Wright Stanly spent con­siderable
time in Philadelphia before, during, and after the Revolution
has already been established. There is no evidence to prove that Hawks
visited the Pennsylvania city after the Revolution ; however , he did go to
Philadelphia in 1767 to hire skilled labor for the construction of Tryon
Palace and may have been impressed with the architectural style, elements
of which he incorporated in the final design of the Palace. See Alonzo
Thomas Dill, "Tryon' s Palace: A Neglected Niche of North Carolina History."
The North Carolina Historical Review, XIX (April , 1942) , 123- 124 .
24waterman, Coloni al Dwellings, 165-172 and Early Architecture of North
Carolina, 34 . See also Appendix D-7 of this report .
25stanly did not clear title to the property until December of 1783~
See fn. 13 . A house of that size would have required a considerable period
of construction. Port records show that Stanly brought in a load of 10, 000
bricks , some paint , and nails on August 23, 1784. These may well have been
supplies needed in construction of the house, especially brick for chimneys .
Treasurer ' s & Comptroller's Paper s , Port Records , Port Beau£ort, State
Archives, Raleigh, hereinafter cited as Port Beaufort Records. Given time
for delays , Hessel is probably accurate in her claim that the house was not
ready for occupancy until late 1784 or early 1785 . Profil e of a Patriot,
99- 100.
26 Based on birthdates of children taken from family records and recorded
by Marybelle Delamar, "John Wright Stanley of New Bern, North Carolina, and
Philadelphia, Pa." (Unpublished typescript in Genealogy Branch, State Lib­rary
, Raleigh, n .d . ) , 14, hereinafter cited as Delamar, "John Wright Stanley."
See also Carraway, The Stanly Family, 21, 22. Three children had died in
•
•
childhood before the house was built •
27 The announcement of Stanly's death appeared in the State
Gazette of North Carolina (Edenton) , June 18 , 1789 . That of his wife
Ann in the July 23 , 1789 issue. Both are transcribed in Delamar , " John
Wright Stanley ," 12 , 13 . See also William Attmore , Journal of a Tour to
Nor t h Ca r oli rta by William Attmore, 1787 . Edited by Lida Tunstall Rodman .
J ames SpiUn t Historical Publicitions ( Chapel Hill: Published by the
University , 1922), 21 - 22 , hereinafter cited as Attmore , Journal .
28 Edith Tunis Sale. Interiors of Virginia Houses of Colonial Times
(Richmond: William By r d Press , 1927) , 39- 40 , 90 , 95 , 282 , 287 , 408 , 417 ,
hereinafter cited as Sale , VirR,inia Houses . See Appendix D-12 of this
report .
29 Sale, Virginia Houses, 287, 417 . See also Appendix D- 12 of this . report .
30 Compare plans in Appendix D- 12 .
31
sale, Virginia Houses, 39- 40 . For exterior similarity to Stanly
House , see p. 38 and Appendix D-20 of this report .
32 Waterman, Early Architecture of North Carolina , 34 .
33 see Appendix D- 12.
34 Attmore , Journal, 20 - 21 . See also earlier reference in text and
fn . 29.
35 Craven County Rec or ds , Estates Papers, John Wright Stanly , State
Archives , Raleigh, Inventory taken by Thomas Turner, 20th July 1789 , pp.
12 - 13, hereinafter cited as Inventory .
36 Inventory, 5 , 6, 7 , 13.
37 Inventory , 5 , 6 , 7, 11.
38 Inventory, 4 , 15, 16, 17 .
20
39For dishes stored in fruit baskets, see Inventory, 9 , in Appendix B.
40
Inventory, 5, 6 , 7 , 11; and Hessel , Portrait of a Patriot, 83 . For
use of mahogany in Philadelphia interiors , see Russell Hawes Kettell (ed . ) ,
Early American Rooms (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1967 [ unabridged
repr int of 1936 edition]) , annotated illustrations in chapter "The Grand Man ­ner
in Phila delphia , " 115- 118 , hereinafter cited as Kettell , Early Amer ican
•
•
21
Rooms. See also Appendix D-18 of this report . On June 21, 1785, Stanly
imported windsor chairs and household furniture, some of which are prob­ably
the mahogany furnishings in the inventory . Port Beaufort Records.
41 Inventory, 5, 6, 7.
42 Kettell, Early American Rooms, 115- 118 . See Appendix D-18 of this
PC I report .
43 Based on analysis of inventory. Pages 1-5 (top) are clearly kitchen
items . Pages 5- 13 (top 3 items) all seem to be in main house. Pages 13- 15
appear to be commercial goods and furnishings for an office , suggesting
some type of storage outbuilding. Pages 16-18 (top) have items clearly be­longing
in a stable, and interspersion of household goods suggests storage.
Pages 18-28 are miscellaneous items and entries obviously associated with
Stanly ' s plantation on the Trent River which supplied many of the household
needs. The last page is a listing of wearing apparel. See Appendix B.
44 sanborn Map and Publishing Co . "New Berne, North Carolina , 1888, "
hereinafter cited as Sanborn Map . See Appendix C- 3.
45 See copy of map in Appendix C-4 .
46Photograph printed in The Image of War: 1861- 1865. Vol. III The
Embattled Confederacy. Edited by William C. Davis and Bell I. Wiley.
(Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1982), 186. See Appendix
D-1 of this report.
47 Compare Sanborn Map , 1888, and 1862 photograph . Appendixes C- 3 and
D- 1.
48 Inventory, 13 - 15.
49 See John J . G. Blumenson, Identifying American Architecture (Nash-ville:
American Association for State and Local History , 1977) , 19; and
Alonzo Thomas Dill, Jr. " Tryon ' s Palace: A Neglected Niche of North Carolina
History. " The North Carolina Historical Review, XIX (April , 1942) , 119- 146,
inserted building specifications .
50 sanborn Map , 1888. See also Appendix C- 3. This building appears to
be on the lower half of the block on the Sanborn Map, but Broad Str eet was
widened by the 1880s, thus taking part of the lower half. In the 1780s, that
structure, if original , would have been on Stanly's property .
51 Sanborn Map , 1888 . See Appendix C-3 .
52 Inventory, 16-17.
ing is barely visible but
photograph .
See Appendix B. See also Appendix D-1. The build­can
be defined under magnification in the original
•
•
22
53 Inventory, 17.
54c~rraway, The Stanly Family , 41-42; and Waterman , Early Architecture
in ~orth Car6l!~a, 33-34." '
55Attmore, 'Joutnal, 16. Modern equivalency estimated on value of silver
on the last day of 1986, which was $5.40 a troy ounce. That figure was mul­tiplied
by the number of troy ounces in the 1785 value given by Attmore,
which was computed from the relationship of the silver dollar to the pound
sterling in 1785. See Clark, State Records, XXIV, 486 .
56Joseph A. Hoskins (comp . ), President Washington's Diaries 1791 to
1799 (Summerfield, N. C.: By the author, 1921), 25, hereinafter cited as
Hoskins, Washington's Diaries; and Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (eds.),
The Diaries of Georg'e ·washington . Vol. VI, January 1790TDecember 1799
(Charlottesville: Un"fver"s'ity Press of Virginia, 1979), 98, hereinafter cited
as Jackson and Twohig, Diaries.
57
Based on general reading of journal. For a specific instance of dis­comfort
and inconvenience, see entry for April 19 in Hoskins, Washington's
Diaries, 20. This was a reference to a public house kept by one Allen,
probably Shadrack Allen, about fourteen miles from Greenville. See Jackson
and Twohig, Diaries, 115.
58Ho s k 1· ns, Wa s h. ' D . . 21 .. 1n~ton s 1ar1es, •
59 Issue of May 13 , 1791. Microprint copy of newspaper at East Carolina
University, Greenville.
60Archibald Henderson, Washington ' s Southern Tour, 1791 (Boston and New
York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923), 93- 94, hereinafter cited as Henderson,
Southern Tour . Henderson quotes directly from the lodge minutes which were
"still preserved at New Berne."
61Dill, "Eighteenth Century New Bern. A History of the Town and Craven
County 1700-1800 ... Part VIII. - New·.. Bern a:t: Century's End . The North Carolina
Historical Review, XXIII (October, 1946), SaS-520, hereinafter cited as Dill,
"New Bern at Century's End . "
62Dill, "New Bern at Century's End, " 524. Dill quotes from The Diary of
Francisco de Miranda (Tour of the United States) 1783-1784, p. 4, as edited by
W. S. Robertson.
63J. F. D. Symthe, A Tour in the United States of America (London, 1784),
I, 159-160, II, 89, hereinafter cited as Smythe, Tour in the U.S.; Attmore,
Journal , 16, 20-21; and Griffith J. McRee, Life and Correspondence of James
Iredell (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 2 vols., 1857), I , 392, 472 .
• 64 oill ' " New Bern at Century ' s End ," 524 .
65 oill, " New Bern at Century ' s End ," 514 .
66Henderson, Southern Tour , 92. The footnote is unclear as to where
Henderson found the information concerning the delivery to Stanly . Rev.
23
L . C. Vass , History of the Presbyterian Church in New Bern , N. C. (Richmond:
L. c . Vass , 1886) , hereinafter cited as Vass , Presbyterian Church in New
Bern , quoted Washington ' s reply but has no other information .
67 see Gertrude Carraway, " The John Wright Stanly House, New Bern,
N. C. , " p. 2 . Typescript prepared for Archives and History, Raleigh,
August 24, 1966. Copy in Research Branch, Division of Archives and History,
Raleigh. Vass , Presb.z_terian Church in New Bern , 94, and Carraway, " The John
Wright Stanly House, New Bern, N. C.," p. 2, and The Stanly Family , 14, 15 , 18.
admit a dependence on Whitford . Charles Hallock, " President Washing t on in
Newbern," Southern States, II (May , 1894) , 148 , uses phrases that appear
earl ier in Whitford ' s writings though no reference to Whitford is made. Hen­derson,
Southern Tour , 88 -89~ quotes from the Hallock article which was ob­viously
based on Whitford's work . In his co-authored work , Old Homes and
Gardens of North Carolina (Photographs by Bayard Wooten), plate 8 , Henderson
attributes his information to Whitford ' s writings.
68 Smythe , Tour in the u . s. , II , 89 .
-
•
•
•
Selected Bibliography
Attmore, William . Journal of a Tour to North Carolina by William Attmore ,
1787. Edit ed by Lida Tunstall Rodman . The James Sprunt Historical
Pu blications , vol . 17 , No. 2 . Chapel Hill: Published by the Univer­sity,
1922 .
Bennett, George Fletcher . Early Architecture of Delaware. Wilmington:
Historical Press , Inc ., 1932.
Blumenson , John J. G. Identifying American Architecture. Nashville :
American Association for State and Local History, 1977.
Carraway, G. "The John Wright Stanly House , New Bern, N.
prepared for Archives and History , August 24, 1966 .
Bran ch, Division of Archives and History , Raleigh .
C." Typescript
Copy in Research
Carraway , Gertrude S . The Stanly (Stanley) Family and the historic John
Wright Stanly House . New Bern: Tryon Palace Commission, 1969 .
Craven County Records
Deeds
Estates Papers
Inventories of Estates
Wills
Cross , Jerry L . " North Carolina Cur r ency : Chaos and Depreciation 1777-
1782 ." Report compiled for Research Branch, Division of Archi ves and
History, Raleigh, 1984 .
Delamar , Marybelle . " John Wright Stanly of New Bern , No rth Carolina, and
Philadelphi a , Pa ." Unpublished typescript on file in Genealogy Branch,
State Library, Raleigh, n . d .
Dill , Alonzo Thomas , Jr . " Eighteen t h Century New Bern : A History of the
Town and Craven Coun ty 1700-1800. 11 The North Carolina Historical Review .
Par t . VII , New Bern During the Revolution , XXIII (July, 1946) , 325- 359 ;
Part VIII , New Bern at Century ' s End , XXIII (October, 1946) , 495 - 535 .
Governor Tryon and His Palace, Chapel Hill : The
University of North Carolina Press , 1955 .
" Tryon ' s Palace : A Neglected Niche of No r th Caro­lina
History . " The Nor th Carolina Historical Review, XIX (April, 1942) ,
119- 167.
Dunlap ' s American Daily Advertiser . Philadelphia. May 13 , 1791. Microprint
copy at East Carolina University . Greenville .
Fouts, Raymond , ed . Abstracts from the North Carolina Gazette of New Bern,
North Carolina 1791- 1798. 2 vols . N. p ., o. . d. Filed in Genealogy Branch,
State Librar y, Ralei gh •
Gray , 0. w. A New Map of New Bern, 1882 .
•
•
•
Green, John B. III. A New Bern Album: Old Photographs of New Bern, North
Carolina and the Surrounding Countryside. New Bern: Tryon Palace
Commission, 1985 .
Hallock, Charles. "President Washington in New Bern." Southern States,
II (May, 1894), 148-149.
Henderson, Archibald. Washington' s Southern Tour , 1791. Boston and New
York: Houghton and Mifflin Company, 1923.
Henderson, Archibald and Bayard Wooten. Old Homes and Gardens of North
Carolina. Chapel Hill: The Garden Club of North Carolina, 1939.
Hessel, Mary Stanley. Profile of a Patriot: The Story of John Wright
Stanly, Revolutionary War Privateer. Edited by Ann Ward Little. New
Bern; Tryon Palace Commission, 1983.
60
Hopkins, Jos . A., camp . President Washington ' s Diaries 1791- 1799. Summer­field,
N. C.: By the author, 1921.
Image of War: 1861- 1865. Vol. III, The Embattled Confederacy.
William C. Davis and Bell I. Wiley. Garden City, N. Y.:
Company, 1982 .
Edited by
Doubleday &
Jackson, Donald and Dorothy Twohig, eds . The Diaries of George Washington .
Vol . VI, January 1790-December 1799.
Press of Virginia, 1979 •
Charlottesville: Uni versity
Keith, Alice Barnwell, ed. The John Gray Blount Papers. Vol. 1, 1764-1789.
Raleigh: State Department ;f Archives and History, 1952.
Kettell, Russell Hawes, ed. Early American Rooms . New York: Dover Publi­cations
, Inc., 1967. Unabridged reprint of 1936 edition.
Kimball, Fiske. Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the
Early Republic . New York: Charles Scribner ' s Sons , 1922.
McRee, Griffith J. Life and Correspondence of James Iredell . 2 vols . New
York: D. Appleton and Company , 1857 .
Sale, Edith Tunis. Interiors of Virginia Houses of Colonial Times. Rich­mond:
~-lilliam Byrd Press , 1927 .
Sanborn Map and Publishing Co . New Berne, North Carolina, 1888 , 1893, 1898,
1904, 1908 .
Sauthier, C. J. A Plan of the Town of Newbern in Craven County, North Caro­lina.
Survey 'd & Drawn in 1769, by C. J . Sauthier.
S~ythe , J . F. D. A Tour in the United States of America. 2 vols. London ,
1784 .
Vass, Rev . L. c. History of the Presbyterian Church of New Bern, N. C •
Richmond : L. C. Vass, 1886.
Waterman , Thomas Tileston. The Dwellings of Colonial America. Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press, 1950 .
•
•
•
Waterman , Thomas Tileston and Frances Benjamin Johnston . The Early Archi­tecture
of North Carolina: A Pictorial Survey. Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press , 1941.
Whitford , John D. "A History of the Biblical Recorder and Baptists in New
Bern." Unpublished manuscript, ca. 1900, in John D. Whitford Papers ,
P. C. 89, State Archives, Raleigh •
61
•
APPENDIXES
•
' .
1
• 0:( 5 .0:- u?J
F\ (~ {-, 5 )'
A. SEIECTIC!lS FROM
JOURiiAL OF A TOUR TO NORTI-1 CAROLINA
BY WilLIAM ATIMORE. 1787
EDITED BY
LIDA nJNSTALL RODMAN
•
J
PREFA
The "Journal of a Tour to Nort.h •
Attmore, of Philadelphia, was a che
granddaughter, the late Miss RehE
N.C. She was a real "Belle of the J
person reflected the cha.nn of that cb
hood that authors delight to picture
Thomas Attmore of Devonshire, 1
born about 1692, who l'emoved to
grandfather of William Attmor e, me
firm of "Attmore & Kaigher." ]a.
Attmore came to North Carolina to
and to obtain new business. While
of which some parts have e'l"idently
to form an interesting narrath·e. Tb
manuscript is clear and beautiful, a
it had been penned yesterday instead
the paper has become faded and torn
On this "tour," or a subsequent en
Sallie SitgreaYes, the captinting da1
whom he was married March 18, 17
in 1800, and was buried there.
The names of some of the descend
Sallie SitgreaYes who have lh•ed in )
years are:
1Tbe nam~ of William S ltpt'ne. oeeun an
Lords ProJlTie~rs In 1755. (Col. ~. •ol. V
his de~tndant~ and rHided ID Naw Bun: I
attainment&. Wh~ler' e hietory· n .ra "he WI
Con~:Tt6S in 1776. in CaptaiD Cuael'e ('OII)j)U
Augnot 17SO, •• aid to Oo•ernor Ca...-ell . 1
Conrrt41 in 1784. and from 17S7 ~ 17S9 ID
was atltoolntf'd U. S. Di•trlrt Judr;e of Nol1h C.
•ate journal hu the followinr:-'1789. Ba.,.
a n ry· clntr rt~~tltman. of coocl deponmut,
hie IJf', and alloold he ti'fe lone enouch, bt ·
Spai ~~:ht and Blount ron~n rrlnlt, ht .,.... nom
where he lies horied." (Wheelu'a Hilt. p 11
/
16 JAMES SPBUNT HlsTOBJCAL PoBI:JCATIONs
This liouse was formerly the residence af the Governors of this
Country, as well as the place where the Legislature sat, to trona­act
their business-It is somewhat out of repair at present, and the
Legislature, not meeting at this time in Newbern, the only use now
made of it is, the Town's people use one of the Ha1ls for a Danc­ing
Room & One of the other Rooms is used for a School Room.
The only inhabitants we found about it were the Schoolmaster aud
one little boy in the palace, school being out. And in the Stables
2 or 3 Horses who had taken Shelter there from the bleakness of
the Wind. The Ki11g of G. Britain's Arms, are still suffered to
appear in a pediment at the front of the Building; which con­sidering
the independent spirit of the people averse to every ves­tige
of Ro,ralty appears &mething strange-
We returned to :Mr. Green's, where I drank Tea with the ladies.
:Miss Cogdell's Sister called in the evening; And two Gentlemen
came in- I was introduoed to :Mrs. Stanly-And accompanied the
Ladies with several Gentlemen, as far as my way went ~here I
bid them Adieu for the evening. r Oue instance of the vicissitudes of human affairs; is exhibited
in the situation of things at the palace, which from being the seat
of a little Court, under the regal Government; is now become the
seat of a petty Schoolmaster with his little subjects, another in­stance
occurs in the person of :Mr. Jno. W. Stanly', the husband
of :Mrs. Stanly already mentioned; this :Man of whom the nrst
knowledge I had, was, his being confined a prisoner in the Goal
of Philadelphia for debt, upon his liberation removed to this
Country, where by a Series of fortunate events in Trade during
the War he acquired a great property, and ha.s built a house in
Newbern where he resides, that is truly elegant aud convenient;
at an expense of near 20,000 Dollars-He has a large Wharff and
•John Stanly oft~n a member of the wrl•laturc fi'Oill Craven, and a member of
Congreu froru 1801 10 11109. He became enK•ked in a political eon~roYeray with
Oo• ernor Rlch•rd Dobba 81•aigbt In 1802 which uofor;·un.ate.ly tenninated in a duol
in wbieb Oo•eroor 8pa~hl r eceived bla death wound.
The beautiful bouae built by Mr. Stanly at •u~h a larro expendllure, for that day.
Ia atill etandinc, and is an ornament r.o the town of New Bern. It Ia cleaeribed aa
'"the bouae In • ·hicb Oeorge Wa•hincton was entertained In 1791. AJld. wher& lolr.
Stanly rne ho.pllablo welron•e to Oeo. Natba.nael Groene. and mado a loan to b.lm
of fonv t.boutand pounds for the o~eEaitiea of bi• autrerinc aoldiera of the Revo­huion:
• !l 16 no•• owned by Roo. Jamta A. Bryan. who aened u a ~:apta ln In the
Confederate Army.
..... ,.. ... :••• ""'-''..., ........ ..,, ... ...., ............. ,
Raleigh
JouRNAL oF A ToUR ro NoJtTa 0A.BOLnu 17
Distillery near his house; upon Neuse River side of the Town-
. and a nne pl~ntation with sixty Slaves thereon.- ..J
One circumstance deserves to be recorded to his honour-Altho'
brought to Philadelphia from Honduras a Prisoner arbitrarily;
and an his arrival sent to Goal by the person who brought him by
force yet 'Upon his getting into affluent circumstances, he gener--·
ously relieved the pecuniary distresses of that very person after­wards;
the more meritorious, as upon a settlement of Accounts
with that Man, it was found that he owed him nothing, but on
the contrary that person was in his Debt- Yr. Wright Stanly
brother to Johu invited me to spend ll Week with him at a Farm
about 13 Miles from Newbern, where he promises me the diversion
of Deer Hunting and driving.
Saturday, N overn:ber 24. Races again today, four Horses
started; a mistake happen'd, the Horses being nearly abreast some
of the people balloed, "set off," "go," &c. which the riders sup­posed
to be Orders from the proper judges; they set off, and run
the course with great eagerness, the blunder created some anger
and a good deal of Mirth. The· Riders were young Negroes of
13 or 14 years old who generally rode bareback.-
! have attcudcd the Races yesterday and today rather from
motives of curiosity than any love to this Amusement, and tltink
I shall hardly be prevailed ou to go ten Steps in future to see any
Horse Race-The objections and inconveniences attending this
kind of Amusement, obvious to me, are,
1st. Large numbers of people are drawn from their business, oc­cupations
and labour, which is a real loss to their families
and the State.
2d. By wagering and ·betting; much quarreling wrangling, Anger,
Swearing & drinking is created and takes place, I saw it on
the present occasion prevalent from the highest to the lowest
- I saw white Boys, and Negroes eagerly betting 1/ 2.f a
quart of Rum, a drink of Grog &c, as well as Gentlemen bet­ting
high-
3
•
·'
20 J AllES SP.BUNT HlsToJUo.AL Ponuc.&TJONS
Tuuiiay, N pvemb~r 27. Nothing worth remarking.­Wedne.
tday, November 28. Breakfasted with J ohn Green­About
11 O'Clock Capt. John Jones & the older Mrs. Blackledge
arrived in Gnrlln€s Sloop from Philadelphia.-six day's passage.
About noon met Mr. John Stanly in Church Street, be tald me
he was going to look for me to give me an invitation to dine t~
morrow at his house.
I gave him to understand that I expected to leave Newbern ta­wards
Evening this day-He then aak'd me to go t.o his house &
take a Glass of Wine-We had· a variety of Chat-Engaged to
dine with him tomorrow if I don't leave town-Went to see Capt.
Jones at Jno. Green's was introduced ta his Mother-in-law. In
the Evening he & Mr. Green called at my quarters, w~ere I gave
them punch-Saw N. Smith today at his Store-! am to expect
trouble, I see, in settling with him. R. Blackledge set off for
Tarhorough early this Morning. H. Harris and I had a long
conversation in the Afternoon at my quar,ters, tllis & an appea~
ance of rain prevents my setting aut for Washington.- r Thursday, November 29. We.nt at two O'Clock to Mr. John W.
Stanly's to dine, he had also invited Judge Spencer", and Yr.
Iredell'" nn eminent Lawyer, Mr. Thomas Turuer, Mr. William
Shepard .. and Mr. Bryan were there. The Ladies present were
Mrs. John W. Stanly, Mrs. Wright Stanly and Mrs. Green, the
widow of Mr. James Green-The Court holding late kept us wait­ing
for the Judge & Lawyers. I had a long tete a tete Conversa­tion
with Mr. Jahn W. Stanly before Dinner ; about half past four
the Judge and Mrs. Iredell came, then we sat down to Dinner.
Had a long discourse with Judge Spencer on the subject of Paper
Money & c. I do not like his ideas, he contends that the Country
"Judf;f' Samut l S1•encu of Anson county ht ld many olll«a under the Colonial
10•~rnment, and waa 01111 of th• thr,_ Judcu of the lluperior Couna Gut elec:ed
und&r the eonl tilutio.n In 1777.
"Mr. lredeU emlgrat~ c.o Cbowan county from En1laud when 17 yurs old. lie
atudied law under Go•. Samuel Johnaton and married hit oi>tu , Hann11b. He b.­came
a very dietin~'-hecl dt l~e.n of !'."onb Carolina. He held o"'lce aucceS8iY~Iy ••
member of tho Auembly, Judce of the Superior Coun., Altorney Otneral of the State
and. lator, waa appointed by George Waahinlt10n Aaroelale Ju .. ice of the Su!Jrerne
Court ol the Unlled St.ate.. In tbe preaidenUal elecllon of 17116 be received thru eled<lral YOW..
"William Shepard o f New Bern waa I he father of Ronorahlea Ch a>. 8.: Wil liam
B.; and Jamaa B. She1uord ; and of Ka.ry, the wlto of Hon. Jobu H. Bryan of RaleiJb. •
I
' i
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I •
JorraNAL OF A Toua TO No.BTR O.uoLINA 91
cannot do without a Paper Medium, and that the value of this
medium shall be regulated.from time to time by a Scale of value
or depreciation. I am afraid the Ladies were ill entertained
while they staid with ua.-We dropt the subject on going into the
Tea Room, where more general topica took place-A while alter
Tea, I took my lea\·e and retired to my Quarters- J
Friday, November 30. I staid in Newbern till about 3 O'Clock
in the Afternoon, then set off alone, for W aahington-Coming out
of Town I heedlessly mias'd my way, and rode about two Milea
before I waa sensible af my being wrong-Had I only thrown the
reins on the Horse's Neck he wou'd probably have gone right, as
he knew the way home to W aahington better than I, and it ia abo
probable that he had not BUch a variety of ideaa to embarrass hi.a
mind.-The Road from Newbern to Waahingtan i.e thro' a Tract
of Oountry mostly a fiat and level body of Land, the Soil a whitiah
Sand, the timber is mostly Pines; in aome places the Pines mixt
with a few Oaks; in one place the &ad goes a short distance
thro' a Swamp of large Cypress Trees, and small canes, with
which are intermingled a variety af Shrubs and Vines growing out
of the watcr.-The Road is partly cover'd with the dead spines
or leaves of the Pines, of a rust colour-Abundance of the Trees,
more particularly the Oaks, have large quantities of a long silver
grey colour Moss hanging from the branches, it grows often 3, 4
or 5 feet long and lookB li.ke Streamers hanging from the bougb-:­Tbis
Moss is good food for Cattle, wha are generally very fond of
it-In t.he Winter when Fodder is short the people cut down the
Trees cover'd with it for the Cattle to browse.-About dark I
arrived at Neuse River, whero giving one or twa halloes that made
the Woods echo, the Ferryman on the other aide heard and
nn.swr'd me-Then came over in the Ferry Scow and took me
across to the Ferry House a little distance from the River, where
Mrs. Curtis gave me hospitable entertainment,-There is a long
Causeway ta pass on the South side of Neuse River very bad in
wet Seasons- "
SaturdQ~y, Decem.ber 1. After Breakfast I set out alone for
Washington, after riding a Mile or two, looking down upon the
•
B. INVENTORY: PERSONAL ESTATE OF JOHN WRIGHT STANLY , 17t39
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1. Stan~y Hous e, ca. 1862
Another peaceful home now
host to the men in blue.
( USAMHI)
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The John Wri11ht Stanly Houae abOut 1920
2 . Stanly House , ca . 1920
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Onlta orll(inalaite onlliddJe Streflt at New Street the John Wril(ht Stanly Houae wu aimUar to Ita appearance when
built durinl( the early 1780'• e~rcept for ita later portico and plantinl•· Ita two Gazebo• had been d e moliahed.
Edward Everett aaluted It u .. once the home of Patriota and Stateamen." Pre.ident Geor1e Wuhin~tonapeat there
two ail(hta, April20-21, 1791, and wrote in bla Dlary that It wu "e.ceedina 1ood lodlfal•·"
3. Stanly House , restored
Front view
Rear ohbe Ree&ored John Wrlebt Stanly H.ouee in 1983
4. Stanly House, restored
Rear view
J o hn \\'right S tanly House. Mant el in drawin g room
NE\\ BER ~, CJU\'EN" COtlNTY
A frontisph·cr mantel in the Delnu·au Rizw style of the /inrst
design and craftsmanship. T he balancing room is full.r panel ed
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John Wright S tanly House. S tairway
'lEW R E RN, ~': RAVE N CO ".:'l''f'Y
The finest colonial stair in North Carolina, with balustrade and
baroql.U! Chippendale brackets of walnut or mahosany
stairway
I
?. Corbitt House , exterior
.llai" FtUad( •
CORBIT H~USE, ODESSA'
EARLY ARCHITECTt:RE OF DELA \\'ARE 7 • Corbitt House, exterior
COR Bl T HO USE. ODESSA
St·l' P.or t II f<•r d~t ail~ .
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8 . Corbitt House , doorway
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EARLY ARCHI TECTURE OF DELAWARE
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10. Co r bitt Hous e, aetails
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11 . Old City Tavern , Alexand r ia
Old City Tavern (later Gadsby's), Alexandri a.
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12 . Contemporary Floor Plans
c:&.ILING
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CHAMBER
DINING
RO OM
First loor llon of Wilto11.
LIBRARY
DRAWING
ROOM
13 . Graeme Park , interior
Figure 79· The drawing-room, Graeme Park · · tl
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14 . Be lmont, interior
Belmont, Fairm ount Park, Philadelphia.A amalJ but hi~hl y architectura1 mansion with only one
major room. There are two bedrooms above and eight lighted closets. Philadelphia Museum.
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15. Dulaney House, interior
Dulaney bouse, Alexandria. A post-colonial interior in the mid-Georgian tTadition. The ro()rnS of
the Dulaney house, beautifully designed and executed in Sir William Chambers' style. have been
carefully restored and furnished in the period. / . 0. BroJtrup.
·.
I ..
16. Robert Townsend Toe House
interior
Robert Townsend Hoe house, A1exandria. A quiet paneled room, with " ·ell-designed and beauti­fullr
~xecuted architectural features. . . Sr. Loui$ Af1ueum.
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17 . Bellair, interior
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IH : \11 1\t.n Bt::l\,, c:tto\\'£' COl'NT\'
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in tbe Pennsylvania
M11Je11m of Art in
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tbe Gadsby Tavem of
Alexandria, Virginia,
norv in the Metropolitan
Museum nf Art i11 New
York City (Wall A)
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WALLA
MAHOGANY WTNG CH AJR PORTRAJT OF
CHIPPENDALE STYLE MRS. MARGARET WTLLINC HARE
PH(LAO£LPHI.A. C. 1770 .BY PEALE
ATrRlBUTEOTO BENJAMIN RANDOLPH
TILT-TOP TABLE
CHIPPENDAL2 STYLE
PHlLADELPHI.A. 1760- 1775
PAIR OF CARVED AND GILDED MIRRORS
CHINESE C HIPPENDALE STYLE
ENGLISH. c. J 760
MAHOGANY WJNG C HAlll
CHIPPENDALE STYLE
PHILADELPHIA. c. 1770
u
WALLB
SILK BROCADE CUJlTArNS
CONSOLE TABLE
MAHOGANY WITH MARBLE 1'0P
CHIPPENDALE STYLE
PHILADELPHIA. C. 1770
MAHOCANY SlDE CHAlll
CHIPPENDALE STYLE
PHILA.DELPHIA. C. 1775
ATTRIBUTED TO BENJAMIN RANDOLPH
MAHOCANY SIDE CHAIR
WITH LABEL OF MAKER;
BENJAMIN RANDOLPH
PHILADELPHIA. C. 177 5
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01~3456
SIDE CH AIRS
WALNUT
PHILADELPHIA
2nd quarter 18th C e11tury
BRASS C~IANDELlER
ENCLISH
21ui half 18th CetJtury
LOOK INC-CLASS
MAHOGANY, CARVED AND CILDED
AMERICAN. Middle of 18th Cenltlry
•
TALL CLOCK
WALNUT VENEER ON
PINE CASE. e. I 725
19. Wythe House, front view
Th,· c.·orgt Wyllrt H o~t. as TUtlltly rl'stort d t o its original lints.

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~ ·
The John Wright Stanly House
by Jerry L . Cross
•
•
TO THE RESEARCHER
This report was compiled from the published sources in­dicated
and from original records held by the North Carolina
Sta~e Archives. Unauthorized reproduction of the entire re­port
is expressly prohibited. Permission is hereby granted
to publish brief extracts from this work. This authorization
is not to be construed as a surrender of copyright, literary
right, or any other property right that is or may be vested
in the State of North Carolina •
911{?> -l. -l7
•
•
The John Wright Stanly House
An Interpretation of the House and Grounds
During the Occupancy of
John Wright Stanly with a Postscript
Concerning the Visit of
President George Washington
Submitted by
Jerry L. Cross
January 12, 1987
Research Branch
North Carolina Division of Archives and History
Table of Contents • Foreword i
The John Wright Stanly House: An Interpretation 1
Postcript 13
Footnotes 17
Appendixes 21
A. Selections from Journal of William Attmore, 1787
B. Inventory: Personal Estate of John Wright Stanly , 1789
C. Maps of New Bern
1 . Sauthier, 1769
2 . Town Plan, 1779
3. Sanborn, 1888, 1893, 1898
4 . Gray, 1882
D. Illustrations
1 . Stanly House, ca . 1862
2 . Stanly Rouse, ca. 1920
3. Stanly House, restored, front view
4 . Stanly House, restored, rear view
5. Stanly House, interior, 1941
6 . Stanly House, stairway, 1941
7. Corbitt House, exterior (2 views)
8 . Corbitt House , doorway (2 views)
9 . Corbitt House , stairway (w views)
10. Corbitt House, interior details (8 views)
11. Old City Tavern (Alexandria), doorway
12 . Contemporary floor plans (4 views)
13. Graeme Park, interior
14. Belmont, interior
15 . Dulaney House , interior
16. Robert Townsend Hoe House , interior
17. Bellair , interior
18 . Powell House, drawing room furnishings
19. ~olythe Houve, front view
Selected Bibliography 59
•
..
•
•
Foreword
The Tryon Palace Commission accepted the John Wright Stanly House as a
gift from the New Bern Library Association on November 4 , 1965 . Upon recom­mendation
of the architectural consultant and concurrence of the contractors,
the commission ' s executive committee decided to remove all later additions to
the structure and restore only the original house . The historic home was
moved to the Tryon Palace Complex in December , 1966 , where the resto~ation
was carried out .
The decision to restore only the original house obligated the interpre­tation
to focus on John Wr i ght Stanly , about whom little actually was known.
Extensive research efforts resulted in two publications by the Tryon Palace
Commission. The first , by Gertrude S . Carraway, The Stanly (Stanley) Family
and the historic John Wright Stanly House (1969), chronicles the Stanly fami­ly
, traces the various ownerships of the house, mentions the physical uses as
Union headquarters in the Civil War and subsequently a Union hospital (Convent
of Mercy) , anddiscusses the restoration and furnishing for exhibition. The
second book, Profile of a Patriot: The Story of John Wright Stanly, Revolu ­tionary
War Privateer (1983) , by Mary Stanley Hessel , is primarily a biography
with emphasis on Stanly ' s career as a shipowner and merchant. What little
there is about the house appears to have been taken from Miss Carraway's earli­er
publication.
From the works of Carraway and Hessel , a reasonably good portrait of John
Wright Stanly and his family emerged, but there was no information on which to
base an interpretation of the house itself, particularly the interior, as occu­pied
in the late eighteenth century. Although the house was furnished with con­temporary
furniture, including Stanly and Spaight family heirlooms, and has been
opened to the public for over fifteen years, many questions have been raised in
•
•
ii
regard to interior layout , room functions , and actual furnishings of the
structure in the 1780s . In a effort to update the programs of the Tryon
Palace Complex, Kay Williams , administrator, requested the Research Branch
of the Division of Archives and History to conduct an investigation for any
information that might help to answer some of the questions .
The following report focuses on John Wright Stanly and his association
with the house . No effort was made to detail his life and career , for to do
so would be to restate merely what Carraway and Hessel have already done so
well. Since only the original portion of the house was restored , which ob­ligates
interpretation to center on that time period, neither was there an
attempt to trace the history beyond the occupancy of John Wright Stanly.
This study constitutes a supplement to the Carraway and Hessel publications
and is intended to augment, not displace, the information in those accounts.
One finds a paucity of data in the documentary records ; consequently,
this report contains few real conclusions . Instead , a comparative technique
(explained in the text) was employed to draw some suggestions and possibili­ties
for interpretation of the Stanly House. Other researchers , using the
same technique and materials , may produce alternatives. This report is in no
way a definitive study but is intended to stimulate ideas and discussions
through which a representative interpretation of the John Wright Stanly House
may be achieved.
While no deliberate attempt was made initially to carry this research be­yond
the death of John Wright Stanly , some questions did emerge in regard to a
long-accepted tenet, the lodging of George Washington in the house in April of
1791. An unexpected challenge to a significant segment of the structure' s his­tory
could not be ignored because of project limitations . Subsequent research
•
•
iii
yielded some interesting results which are contained in a postscript to
this study. Perhaps it too will be beneficial in the continuing effort to
interpret the history of the Stanly House as accurately as possible •
•
•
The John Wright Stanly House: An Interpretation
John Wright Stanly (1742-1789) came to New Bern from Phildelphia in
1772 and began to establish himself as a merchant and ship owner. On June
24, 1773 he married Ann Cogdell, daughter of Richard Cogdell, and shortly
afterwards , they moved into a new house on East Front Street where Stanly
also had a warehouse and wharf. 1 Despite the advent of the American Revolu-tion
which brought intense fluctuations to his economic enterprises, Stanly
generally prospered during those tumultuous years . By 1779, however, war-time
inflation was beginning to create fiscal chaos; continental currency
deflated rapidly and North Carolina issue followed closely behind .2 To help
stabilize his assets, Stanly began investing a large portion of his profits
in real estate. In 1779 and 1780 he purchased six additional lots in town ,
a portion of another lot , and over 770 acres of land outside of New Bern.3
Among the properties were the lots on which he was later to build his elegant
home.
On October 20 , 1779 Thomas Ogden sold lots 280, 281, 282, and 283 to
John Wright Stanly for f8 , 400 .4 The high selling price has led some resear ch-ers
to believe that a structure or partial structure was already on the prop­erty
when it was bought by Stanly.5 A closer analysis , however , suggests
that this was not the case. In 1783 the North Carolina General Assembly es-tablished
a scale of depreciation for the repayment of wartime debts. That
scale stated that by October, 1779, it took f.25 to equal f.l of the pre-
1. nf l at1. onary per1. od • 6 Using that formula , Stanly paid f.84 per lot for the
property. In 1773 he had paid f.l50 for his unimproved lot on East Front
Street, and that included nearly another half acre of water frontage; thus ,
the half- acre price of the lots in 1779 was essentially the equivalent to
that of a half acre in 1773, suggesting that no structures existed on the
•
•
2
Middle/New Street lots in 1779. 7 Furthermore, the Sauthier Map of 1769 shows
only a wooded area where the house was later built, and for most of the 1770s ,
8 the key lots, 280 and 281, were encumbered by an unresolved mortgage. It
was unlikely that one would build on a lot for which he had no clear title.
With this information, and considering the extent to which Stanly was invest-ing
in land in 1779 and 1780, it seems logical to conclude that the half
block bet~een Middle and Hancock streets was purchased initially as invest-ment
with no other purpose in mind.
With General Cornwallis in Wilmington, and other southern ports under
British control in 1781, Stanly felt New Bern was vulnerable to attack . He
believed that his ownership of successful privateers and ardent support of
the American cause would make him a prime target if the town were invaded.
With his family in one ship and much of his household furniture in another ,
he set sail for Philadelphia . The Stanly family made the trip safely , but
the ship carrying furniture and belongings fell into British hands . It was
the replacement furniture, bought in Philadelphia, that they brought back to
9 New Bern when they returned in the fall of 1782.
Stanly probably learned while in Philadelphia that his home , warehouse ,
and wharf on East Front Street had been virtually destroyed by a Bri tish ex-peditionary
force. He may have begun formulating plans for his new home
about that time, but his wartime losses had not been fully calculated even by
10
1782, and inflation had risen to more than 800 percent . Under those con-ditions,
it seems unlikely that he initiated any plans for construction. In-
11 stead, he and the family moved into a house he already owned on Broad Street.
Stanly spent much of 1783 in Philadelphia and Charleston reestablishing
h . ha b . 12 ~s mere nt usmess • Passage of the depreciation scale for repayment of
debts and regulation of suits for indebtedness helped to stablize the fiscal
situation somewhat, and by the end of the year , John Wright Stanly turned his
•
•
3
attention to the four lots on which he planned to build a new home. The
first step came in December when he received a quit claim from Francis
Fontaine of Edisto, South Carolina, for lots 280 and 281, which gave him a
clear title and removed all obstacles to construction.
13
Family tradition has long maintained that John Wright Stanly employed
John Hawks, architect for Tryon Palace, to design his new home, but no
evidence has been found either to support or deny the claim. 14 Considering
his long standing popularity in New Bern, it would seem possible for Hawks
to have put together the overall design of the Stanly House, but it is clear
that the supervising architect borrowed heavily from elements of style pub-lished
in English architectural pattern books. Thomas T. Waterman noted in
1941 that the interior of the Stanly House bore an unmistakable Philadelphia
influence, and it was through that port that pattern books and adaptations of
1 had d . 11 . . h Am . 1 . 15
sty es ma e an especLa y strong ~pact ~n t e er~can co on~es.
Some interior style elements incorporated in the Stanly House, particular-
.ly the restored drawing room (parlor), had been popular in the general Phila-delphia
area two decades before John Wright Stanly was born. The drawing
room at Graeme Park (at Horsham near Philadelphia), built in 1721, features
an overmantle with broken scroll pediment and pedestal, full pediments over
the doors, and dentilated cornice, almost identical to those in the Stanly
House. 16 The elements maintained popularity, appearing with some embellish-ments
in later Philadelphia homes such as Belmont (1743) and the Powell House
(1768). 17 Expanding southward the features were installed in the fine Robert
Townsend Hoe House and the elaborate Dulaney House, both in Alexandria,
"i . . 18 v rg~n~a. Beginning with Belmont, the above-named houses exhibit a mantle
style similar to the mantel in the drawing room of the Stanly Rouse, and that
element appeared even closer to home with construction of Bellair near New
Bern in 1775. Bellair also exhibited a simplified version of the overmantle
•
•
4
found in the other homes. 19
Perhaps the best evidence of a pattern book design and Philadelphia
influence for the Stanlv House can be seen through a comparison with the
Corbitt aouse (1774) in Odessa, Delaware. The interior of that structure
was executed by Robert May of Philadelphia; yet Waterman later noted that
"the mantel and overmantel are almost counterparts of those in the west
20 parlor of the Stanly House ." The same can be said of almost identical
stairways in the two houses . Both have three runs with square landings; a
balustrade with a richly molded railing terminating in a volute over the
newel; wall railings paralleling the balustrade; balusters of identical
shape ~urned in walnut or mahogany, and stair ends carved with fine , baroque,
Chippendale brackets.21
Exteriors of the two houses also suggest something of a common author-ship
. Both are basically two stories with a five-bay front typical of
Georgian architecture, but the deck- on-hip- roo£ capped with a balustrade,
ridge chimneys, and refinement of detail elevate each into a separate cate-gory
comparable to the quality work of Philadelphia craftsmen. Both houses
exhibit front entrance doorways in similar Doric style with virtually iden-tical
arched transoms and are laid out in the center hall, four-room plan
with the elegant staircase in each rising from the r ear of a wide hall. 22
There is no evidence that John Wright Stanly or John Hawks (if he did
design the Stanly House) ever saw the Corbitt House as they journeyed to and
from Philadelphia; however, the Delaware River ·valley and Philadelphia in­fluences
on the Stanly House are unmistakable. 23 It seems most likely that
those who designed the interiors and exteriors of both houses used a common
source (perhaps a pattern book) and then added personalized touches for
special effects. The full pediments over the lower windows in the Stanly
•
•
5
Rouse , for instance, do not appear on the Corbitt House, nor are they com -
mon at all in the Delaware River tradition . They may have been adapted from
the Hudson River style, traces of which are evident in the Stanly House, ac-cording
to Waterman, but they may also reflect the particular taste of the
architect or even John Wright Stanly himself . 24
The size, style, and detail of the house required a considerable period
of time for construction. Not before late in 1784 or, more likely, early in
1785 d "d h s 1 . h . h 25
1 t e tan ys move 1nto t e1r new ome. A daughter , Margaret Cog-dell
(1787) , and a son, Thomas Turner (1789) , were born in the Stanly House,
bringing the number of family occupants to eight (six children and two
adults). 26 Both John Wright and Ann Stanly died prematurely in 1789 after no
more than a four and a half year residency in their new home. No records de-scribing
life in the house or how the various r ooms were used have been found .
For certain there were bedrooms, a dining room , and a "tea room" or parlor.
The latter was identified in 1787 by William Attmore, a visitor in the Stanly
27 home .
How the rooms were laid out remains conjecture , but a close scrutiny of
the inventory of John Wright Stanly's personal estate, comparison with floor
pl ans and layouts of similar Georgian dwellings, and application of the few
known facts brought forth some representative ideas. It must be remembered,
however, that while the furnishings in the Stanly House may be determined,
the function and arrangement of each room cannot be . Information contained
herein represents only the times, comparable social status , and what was pos-sible,
not probable. In no way should the discussion of rooms , furnishings ,
and outbuildings be construed as an authentic depiction of the Stanly House
in the 1780s •
A study of Virginia homes somewhat earlier than the Stanly House but of
similar floor plans, and whose owners occupied a socio-economic status
•
•
6
~omparable to John Wright Stanly, revealed an interesting pattern as to the
continuity of room functions over several decades . A random selection
(Wythe House [ca . 1760], York Hall [1740], Gunston Hall [ca. 1750] , Wilton
[ca . 1730]) showed two of the four to contain three rooms in common on the
first floor: dining room, parlor, and reception (drawing) room. In the
other two (Gunston Hall and Wilton), the library apparently doubled in func-tion
as a parlor , but each also had a drawing room and a dining room. 28 As
to the fourth room, research failed to uncover functions in the Wythe House
and York Hall , but at Gunston Hall and Wilton, the room was used as a chamber
(probably guest bedroom). 29 The limited study thus seems to indicate that
the downstairs of homes with a central hall and four - room plan contained a
dining room, drawing room, either a parlor or a library, and an optional room
that· as often as not was a chamber. There were not, however, any signs of
uniformity as to which room was designed for which function and no proof that
Stanly followed the traditional pattern in the post- Revelutionary era. 30
The best description of a typical central hall and four -room plan is
the one for Wythe House . That structure, located in Williamsburg , bears a
striking exterior resemblance to the Stanly House, and the latter's interior
may have been laid out along similar lines.
The door on the left of the main entrance opens into the parlour
[elsewhere called the drawing room] , which has the dimensions of fif ­teen
feet six inches wide and eighteen feet four inches long, and is
done in old ivory. • • •
The sitting room [parlor] adjoins the parlour [drawing room] at
the rear, and this measures thirteen feet six inches by eighteen feet
four inches. Like the drawing room, it has three windows and a door
upon one side, which opens beneath the stairway into the hall.
The dining room on the east front of the dwelling is delightful
and has the same ivory dado as the parlour [drawing room] across the
hall. A rich modillion cornice accords with the colour of the wain­scot,
and the walls are decorated with antique paper.31
• Waterman ' s 1941 description of the interior of the Stanly House ~ug -
gests possible similarities in room layout:
The east parlor {left front entrance] has , unfortunately, lost its
original mantl e , and that replacing it is of another period. Its
wall finish, however, is richer than the finish of its balancing
room, with full height wood paneling instead of the plaster walls
above a dado .32
The richer wall finish with full height panel ing suggests a more formal
area such as a drawing, or reception, room. The balancing room may have
7
been the dining room as at the Wythe House or a formal parlor as at York
Ha11 . 33 That the Stanly House had both a dining room and parlor is verified
in the journal of William Attmore , the 1787 guest of John Wright Stanly:
Thursday, November 29. Went at two O' Clock to Mr . John W. Stanly's
to dine ••• about half past four the Judge and Mrs . Iredell came,
then we sat down to dinner . • We dropt the subject [of paper cur-rency]
on going into the Tea Room, where more general topics took
p 1 ace •• •• 34
The tea room was a parlor where the host and hostess engaged their guests in
conversation or sometimes provided entertainment. Attmore ' s description sug-gests
that the parlor and dining room may have been adjoining rooms on the
same side of the hallway with a direct entrance from one to the other . Yet ,
str angely, in none of the four houses taken for representative study was this
the actual case.
The optional room on the first floor of the Stanly House is diff i cult
to identify. The inventory of Stanly's property appears to have been taken on
a room- by- room basis but was then compiled into a continuous l isting for the
court record . If a methodical account were taken, no effort to follow the
same procedure in drafting the court document was followed ; consequently , while
some furnishings can clearly be placed in certain rooms, the room layout of the
house cannot be determined from the inventory . One can, however , determine
• with reasonable accuracy the items in the dwelling from those in outbuildings.
•
8
The best clue for the optional room comes from the following sequence of
items in the inventory:
One Mahogany Curtain Bedstead and Sacking Bottom
Two Bureau Tables
Two Dressing Glasses
Two rice Sifters (Wire)
Two wash Stands
One easy Chair with one chintz & one cheque Cover
One Blanket 35
One pr And Irons with brass Fronts
The andirons with brass fronts also appear in rooms that can be identified
as the drawing room, parlor, and dining room . Their presence seemed to be
an effort for symmetry or uniformity among the downstairs rooms. The inventory
suggests that andirons in the upstairs rooms had brass tops , but not brass
36 fronts. Thus , the fourth room on the first floor possibly was a chamber for
the many important guests and associates who spent the night in the Stanly
home.
The inventory is less clear as to the furnishings in each room, but one
overall fact did emerge. Considering the size of the house and the status of
John Wright Stanly, there were relatively few pieces of " heavy" furniture ,
items that could not be moved with relative ease . The following appear to have
been in the home at the time the inventory was taken:
1 mahogany sideboard
2 mahogany dining tables
2 mahogany bedsteads
2 other bedsteads (not described)
2 bureau tables
1 mahogany sofa
1 mahogany breakfast table
1 table for china (possibly mahogany)
1 pine table 37 1 desk and bookcase
In addition, there were two desks , two bedsteads, a piano , a mahoghany
table, and four pine tables apparently scattered in outbuildings located on the
•
38 house lots. Absence of much " heavy" furniture, and the fact that dishes were
•
9
stored in baskets, suggests the possibility that John Wright Stanly had not
completed the furnishing of his new home before his untimely death. 39 Space
created by the lack of large items seems to have been filled by the placement
of chairs , forty- five of which are listed in the inventory. One other fact
is also clear from a survey of the personal estate: Stanly obviously had a
preference for mahogany furniture, much of which came from Philadel phia.
40
Besides the items named above, other mahogany furnishings included a cradle ,
two t eab oard s , two card tab le s, and t hl.. rty-seven o f t h e f arty- f.l. Ve c h al.. rs . 41
To try and refurbish the rooms from the inventory would be impossible to do
with an¥ degree of accuracy; however , for purposes of information, illustra-tions
of the restored drawing room of the Powell House in Philadelphia, to
which Waterman favorably compared the drawing room of the Stanly House, have
been appended to this essay .
42
Some of the items bear similarities to those
listed in Stanly ' s inventor y.
A close scrutiny of the inventory indicates that several outbuildings
helped form a complex of structures on the home lots. One was a kitchen , an-other
a stable, a third was a building for storage , and perhaps even a four t h
structure was used for domestic skills (spinning, weaving , etc. ) .
43
The 1888
Sanborn Map of New Bern shows three, two- story outbuildings, two of which may
h ave b een orl..g J.. na1 • 44 The third structure, a stable, was obviously a recent
replacement since it does not appear on Gray ' s 1882 map of the city.45 An
1862 photograph of the Stanly House sheds a little more light on the possible
arrangement of outbuildings.
The photograph shows a two- story, slightly rectangular building to the
46
right rear of the house . This structure appears to be in the same location
as the one labeled 11stor.age" on the 1888 Sanborn Map . The latter building had
• a one- story wing on the west end, but it does not appear that the 1862 facility
•
•
47 had such an appendage . In the photograph , the outbuilding faces the
rear of the main house and has a stair leading to a second-floor door
directl y above the ground - floor entrance . No definite function for this
structure was found, but the presence of a small chimney opens the pos-sibility
that it may have been the building housing a considerable q u an-tity
of general merchandise, a pine writing desk, ink stand , a Morocco
leather paper a nd ink case , a poplar bedstead and covers , and a pair of
andirons with tongs and shove1. 48
10
The fondness for symmetry in Georgian architecture suggested a parallel
flanking structure on the opposite side of the Stanly House . The angle of
the 1862 photograph failed to expose that area , but the 1888 Sanborn Map de-picts
a building about 25 feet by 18~ feet in just such a position . When
the wing of the structure on the right rear of the house is removed (and it
apparently had been added between 1862 and 1888) , the two outbuildings are
almost identical in size and shape and are equidist ant from the main house.
Altogether they form a perfect symmetrical pattern of a dwelling with match­ing
flanker buildings common in Georgian architecture, i . e. , Tryon Palace. 49
Both flankers were of frame construction , and the one depicted i n the 1862
photograph had a hip roof ma tching that of the Stanly House , fur thering the
possibility of contemporary construction . The Sanborn Map does not identify
the function of the left flanker building , but the size suggests the possi-bility
of a kitchen . Like its counterpart , it faced the rear of the main
house, as proven by its address of 218~ Neuse (New) Street . 50 The inventory
of Stanly ' s estate clearly indicates a well - furnished, detached kitchen, and
since its matching flanker is positively identified as storage in 1888, it
would seem most likely that this structure to the left rear of the house was
the kitchen . If these two buildings on the Sanborn Map are not the originals ,
•
•
11
then extreme care was taken in erect~ng replacements to maintain the symmetri-cal
appearance of the Georgian era, a prospect somewhat unlikely in the na-tionalistic
period after 1800 and even more improbable in the later Victorian
era.
The 1888 Sanborn Map shows a stable bordering Neuse (New) Street, a
short distance from the intersection of Hancock Street . 57 This, however, was
a replacement as mentioned earlier . In the 1862 photograph, a large frame
building can be deteched some distance to the rear but almost directly behind
the Stanly House . This may well have been a stable/barn, but these outbuild-ings
usually have shorter lives than others and it may or may not be the
original . Stanly would have needed a stable of considerable size to house as
many as six horses, at least two cows· and calves, feed for livestock, and the
har nesses and 1 ~. very f or trave1 ~. ng . 52 The inventory also mentions four riding
vehicles, two cotton gins, four spinning wheels , along with a large quantity
of damaged and unused dishware and large pieces of furniture such as a bedstead,
p i ano, ·t a ble s, d es k , and e i g h t w.~ d sor c h a~. s. 53 That type and number of
items would have been difficult, if not impossible, to store in a stable with
the quantity of livestock Stanly owned ; consequently , there may have been a
fourth major outbuilding that served a dual purpose of storage and as a room
for spinning and weaving.
While logical conjecture about the Stanly House and grounds may be of-fered
, few conclusions can be made. One fact cannot be doubted. ·with the dis-use
and deterioration of Tryon Palace, the Stanly House emerged in the 1780s as
54 the best and most elegant residence in New Bern. Built at a cost of $20,000
in contemporary silver dollars, the modern equivalency of about $518,000, it
ranked as one of the finest homes erected in eighteenth- century North Carolina .
55
As stated at the outset, this discussion of the Stanly House and its en-virons
lacks sufficient documentary verification; it is but one interpretation
•
•
12
based on the available information . The written record is relatively silent,
and destruction of the original site eliminated any evidence that archae­ological
investigation might have produced . With it may have gone the last
opportunity for a better understanding of eighteenth- century life in the
John Wright Stanly House •
•
•
Postscript
John Wright Stanly's death in 17-89 deprived him of the opportuni ty to
meet the first president of the United States when the latter visited New
Bern two years later. For over a cent ury, however, the claim that George
Washington stayed in the Stanly home on the nights of April 20 and 21, 1791 ,
has been an integral part of the structure's history. Accepted generally as
truth, no one seems to have questioned its validity . In the course of this
study, serious doubts emerged in regard to the Washington story. It was ,
and is , not the intent of this postscript to discredit time honored tradi-tion
, but historical honesty and professional objectivity demand that the
basis of those doubts be equally considered . Tradition plays an important
role in histor y and should not be dismissed summarily; neither should it be
allowed to flourish uncontested in the light of evidence to the contrary .
Questions concerning the alleged Washington stay in the Stanl y House be-gan
with the discovery of a letter from George Washington to William Washing-ton
dated January 8, 1791. William, a distant kinsman, had invited the presi-dent
to stay at his home in Charleston during the tour to that city. The
president replied as follows :
I cannot without involving myself in inconsistency; as I have determined
to pursue the same plan in my Southern--as I did in my Eastern visit,
which was not to incommode any private family by taking up my quarters
with them during my journey. It leaves me unencumbered by engagements ,
and by a uniform adherence to it , I shall avoid giving umbrage to any,
by declining all such invitations . 56
Before he even began his southern tour , Washington made clear his intent to
use only public accomodations where they existed, and t hough a number of ex-ceptions
were forced due to lack of such facilities, a scrutiny of his journal
clearly shows that he tried to follow his stated policy religiously. On oc-casion
this meant enduring more discomfort and inconvenience than would have
• had h ed
. . . . 57 been necessary e accept pr1vate 1nv1tat1ons •
In his own journal Washington ' s New Bern entries mention only " exceed­ing
good lodgings. " 58 No name or further identification is given. Else-where
in his account, the president was careful to name his host on those
times when circumstances dictated that he stay in private dwellings . The
absence of such identification seems significant . An account of the presi-dent
' s visit to New Bern was carried in Dunlap ' s American Daily Advert i ser
(Philadelphia), which seems to have been the "official" newspaper covering
the southern tour . Dunl ap ' s included minute details from the names of the
14
New Bern escort to all fifteen toasts given at the banquet in the Palace , but
nothing in regard to Washington ' s quarters. 59 Likewise, the minutes of St.
John ' s (Masonic) Lodge No. 2 record that a committee waited on the president
60 " at his lodgings" and presented him with a welcoming address. Again , no
identification of said lodgings is to be found . Thus, there is no contempo-rary
written evidence to indicate that President Washington stayed in the
John \-Jright Stanly House . In fact, the available information would suggest
that in New Bern he followed his stated policy of using public accomodations.
There was a number of taverns and inns, some most suitable, in New Bern
during the last two decades of the eighteenth century. Between 1784 and 1798 ,
New Bern enjoyed tremendous growth. The population more than doubled and new
61 constructions were frequent . In addition to being the county seat of Craven
and the largest town in North Carolina , it was also the busiest port in the
state . Consequently , New Bern hosted numerous overnight visitors during those
years, some of whom left written accounts of the town. Among those were Judge
James Iredell of Edenton , William Attmore of Philadelphia, J . F. D. Smythe of
England, and Francisco de Miranda of Spain. All stayed in public lodgings
• though they often dined with prominent residents of the town . Miranda wrote
~ in 1783 that he stayed at the popular establishment of Joseph Oliver on Mid­dle
Street for about eight shillings a day, "which price seemed to me ex­tremely
low considering the neatness and good appearance of the place. " 62
Neither Smythe (1784), Iredell (several visits) , nor Attmore (1787) clearly
identified their lodgings , but their writings leave little doubt that they
stayed in public facilities. 63 Besides Oliver ' s, other known establishments
for the 1780s and 1790s were Monsieur Hero's , Sylvester Pendleton's , and an
unnamed (not yet found) one near Craven and South Front streets . Alonzo
Dill, author of a history of eighteenth- century New Bern, adds: "After the
adoption of the [U.S.] Constitution, some of these taverns were designated
with a federalist touch, as 'at the sign of the Golden Eagle' or ' at the
Sign of the Arms of the United States ' ."64 With a choice of such accommoda­tions,
it seems quite unlikely that President Washington would have deviated
from the policy he had been following on his tour .
15
As mentioned earlier , Washington wanted to avoid causing dissention among
local residents vying for the honor of being his host . To have stayed at the
Stanly House could have provoked umbrage among other prominent New Bernians
such as John Sitgreaves, judge of the federal District Court in New Bern , and
Major John Daves, first collector at the new customs house in New Bern , both
•
of whom were appointed to their positions by the president. 65 It was not Wash­ington
' s personal desire, nor would it have been politically expedient for the
Federalist party, to knowingly contribute to situations with possible results
of disaffection.
The information thus uncovered casts ominous doubts on the association of
George Washington and the Stanly House. The question remains as to how and
when the tradition came into existence, a query for which no definite answer
was found . Archibald Henderson, in his Washington ' s Southern Tour , 1791,
•
•
implies that the original of the president ' s reply to his welcoming add­ress
was given to "John G. Stanly, Esq., at whose house Washington was
entertained." His source apparently was a New Bern newspaper edited by
16
C. C. Clark, which Henderson did not identify nor date except to say "prior
to the War Between the States. "66 The fact that Stanly' s middle initial
was given incorrectly, along with the fact that Stanly died two years be­fore
the visit, almost certainly invalidates the accuracy of that source .
The earliest appearance of the tradition in print appears to be articles
printed in the New Bern Journal by Col. J ohn D. Whitford in 1882. Over a
period of many years, Whitford compiLed notes on the history of New Bern
and prepared several articles in the late nineteenth century. He seems to
be the first writer to delve into the life of John Wright Stanly, and sub­sequent
publications relied on his conclusions. 67
On what evidence Whitford based his statements remains a mystery . At
least two of his major points have been proven erroneous by the research
for this report . The Stanly House was not begun before the Revolution, or
even in 1779, but about 1784 , and Stanly did not return to New Bern in
August of 1781 but in the fall of 1782. Such errant research must also cast
doubts on Whitford's claim that Washington stayed in the Stanly House . Much
has been made of Washington's entry of "exceeding good lodgings" in New Bern.
The Stanly House no doubt was the most imposing residence at the time, but
J. F. D. Symthe noted a few years earlier that New Bern contained " several
exceedingly good and even elegant houses. "68 Thus, had Washington wished to
stay in a private resl.dence, he apparently had several "exceeding good lodg­ings"
from which to choose and the reference in no way specified any particu­lar
structure. Whether or not they, are the source of the tradition, the com­pilations
of John D. \-lhitford are at best questionable and caution must be
exercised in their u~age .
•
•
Footnotes
~ary Stanley Hessel, Profile of a Patriot: The Story of John
Wright Stanly, Revolutionary War Pr'ivateer'. Edited by Ann Ward Little.
(New Bern: Tryon Palace Coxmnission, 1983) , 11, 28- 29, 31, hereinafter
cited as Hessel; Profile of a Patriot; and Gertrude S. Carraway, The
Stanly (Stanley) Family 'and the historic John Wright Stanly House (New
Bern: Tryon Palace Coxmn'ission, 1969) , 10, hereinafter cited as Carraway,
The Stanly Family .
2Hessel, Profile of a Patriot, 68- 70, 79; Carraway , The Stanly .EaJI.lily ,
11-13; and Jerry L. Cross, "North Carolina Currency: Chaos and Deprecia­tion
1777- 1782." Report prepared for Research Branch, Division of Archives
and History, Raleigh, 1984 , p. 1, hereinafter cited as Cross, "North Caro­lina
Currency. "
3Hessel , Profile of a Patriot , 69- 70 . By the end of 1780, inflation
of currency had reached 200 percent . As illustration , Stanly paid f41 , 000
for 400 acres on Brice Creek. See also Cross, "North Carolina Currency,"
4.
4
craven County Deed Books , Office of the Register of Deeds, Craven
County Courthouse , New Bern, Deed Book 24, p. 32 , hereinafter cited as Craven
County Deed Book.
5carraway , The Stanly Family, 18. Miss Carraway also quotes an 1882
article in the New Bern Journal in which John D. Whitford contended that a
house on the corner lot was "coxmnenced before the Revolutionary War. "
6 Cross, "North Carolina Currency," 4. The scale is given in Walter
Clark (ed . ), The State Records of Nort h Carolina (Winston and Goldsboro :
State of North Carolina, 16 vols., 1895- 1906) , XXIV, 485 , hereinafter cited
as Clark, State Records.
7
For purchase of Front Street property, see Craven County Deed .Book 20 ,
p. 374.
8
See "A Plan of the Town of Newbern in Craven County, North Carolina,
Survey 'd & Drawn in 1769, by C. J. Sauthier" in Appendix C-1. Francis Fon­taine
of Edisto, South Carolina , formerly of New Bern, had placed lots 280
and 281 in a deed of trust to merchants John Clitheral and John Stevenson of
New Bern in 1753 . Both died before the trust was resolved , and James Clitheral,
son of John, then sold the lots to Thomas Ogden with the encumbered trust still
not settled . Not until December , 1783 , did Fontaine release all claim to the
lot, after the purchase by John Wright Stanly. See Craven County Deed Book 24,
p. 332 •
9Hessel, ·profile ·of a Patriot , 79-83 , 90; and Carraway, The Stanly Family ,
14 . For general fear in New Bern, see Alonzo Thomas Dill, Jr. , "Eight eenth
Century New Bern. A History of the Town and Craven County, 1700- 1800." The
•
•
18
North Carolina Historical Review , 8 parts. Part VII . New Bern During
the Revolution , XXIII (July, 1946) , 356- 357 , hereinafter cited as Dill,
" New Bern During the Revolution."
10Hessel shows cons i derable evidence to prove that Stanly did not
return to New Bern until the British began evacuating troops from the
southern states . Profile of a Patriot , 85- 90 . Whitford , however , con­tends
that Stanly returned to New Bern in August , 1781, to find his prop­erty
destroyed . John D. Whitford , "History of the Biblical Recorder and
Baptists in New Bern (with notes on the general history of New Bern and
Craven County) . " Typed manuscript (ca. 1900) in John D. Whitford Papers,
~C . 89~5 , State Archives , Raleigh , p . 1 35 , hereinafter cited as Wh itford,
"Historical Notes ." British forces under Major James Craig occupied New
Bern from August 19 to August 21, 1781 . For several days thereafter , they
remained in the Neuse River area destroying considerable property . It
seems unlikely that Stanly would return to face such danger . Whitford
seems to have confused the British invasion with Stanly ' s return. See Dill,
"New Bern During the Revolution ," 357 - 358. For inflation rate, see Cross,
"North Carolina Currency ," 4 .
11The site was one on which Dr . James B. Hughes built a large brick
mansion after the Ci vil War. Whitford , "Historical Notes ," 135.
12 Hessel , Profile of a Patriot , 94. See also letters from Thomas
Blount to John Gray Blount beaded Philadelphia, August 30, September 9 ,
1783 . Alice Barnwell Ke ith (ed.), The John Gray Blount Papers (Raleigh:
State Department of Archives and History , 1952) , I, 95, 102 .
13 Craven County Deed Book 24, p. 332 . See also Town Plan of New Bern ,
1779 , in Appendix C-2.
14 Carraway , The Stanly Family , 19; and Thomas Tileston Waterman and
Fran ces Benjamin Johnston, The Early Architecture of North Carolina (C hapel
Hill: The Un iversity of North Carolina Press, 1941), 33 - 34 , hereinafter
cited as Waterman , Early Architecture of North Carolina.
15waterman, Early Architecture of North Carolina , 34. For Philadelph­ia
as point of impact , see Fiske Kimball, Domestic Architecture of the
American Colonies and of the Early Republic (New York : Charles Scribner ' s
Sons , 1922) , 55- 58, hereinafter cited as Kimball, Domestic Architecture .
16Kimball, Domestic Architecture, 64 , 109 . See also Appendix D- 13 of
this report . Gra'eme""Park was constructed ten years before John Hawks was
born , thus providing more evidence of a pattern book influence on the Stanly
House even if Hawks were the architect . See Alonzo Thomas Dill, Governor
Tryon and His Palace (Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press ,
1955)' 111. •
17 Thomas Tileston Waterman , The Dwellings of Colonial America (Chapel
Hill : The University of North Carolina Press , 1950), 163-164, 171-174,
hereinafter cited as Waterman, Colonial Dwellings . See also Appendix D-14
of this report.
•
•
19
18 Waterman , Colonial Dwellings , 93-94 . See also Appendixes D- 15
and D- 16 of this report .
19 Waterman, Early Architecture of North Carolina, 34. See also
Appendix D- 17 of this report .
20waterman; ·colonial 'Dwellings, 166, and Early Architecture of North
Carolina, 34. See also George Fletcher Bennett, Early Architecture of
Delaware (Wilmington, Del.: Historical Press, Inc., 1932) , 89, 91, here­inafter
cited as Bennett , Early Architecture of Delaware; and Appendixes
D- 5 and D-10 of this report .
21waterman, Early Architecture
Earl y Architecture of Delaware, 87. •.
this report.
of North Carolina, 34; and Bennett,
See also Appendixes D-6 and D- 9 of
22waterman , Colonial Dwellings, 165-166 and Early Architecture of
North Carolina, 34; and Bennett, Early Architecture of Delaware, 84- 86 .
See also Appendixes D- 3, D- 4, D- 7, and D- 8 .
23For southern expansion of Philadelphia style, see examples in
Appendixes D- 11, D- 15 , D- 16, and D-17. That John Wright Stanly spent con­siderable
time in Philadelphia before, during, and after the Revolution
has already been established. There is no evidence to prove that Hawks
visited the Pennsylvania city after the Revolution ; however , he did go to
Philadelphia in 1767 to hire skilled labor for the construction of Tryon
Palace and may have been impressed with the architectural style, elements
of which he incorporated in the final design of the Palace. See Alonzo
Thomas Dill, "Tryon' s Palace: A Neglected Niche of North Carolina History."
The North Carolina Historical Review, XIX (April , 1942) , 123- 124 .
24waterman, Coloni al Dwellings, 165-172 and Early Architecture of North
Carolina, 34 . See also Appendix D-7 of this report .
25stanly did not clear title to the property until December of 1783~
See fn. 13 . A house of that size would have required a considerable period
of construction. Port records show that Stanly brought in a load of 10, 000
bricks , some paint , and nails on August 23, 1784. These may well have been
supplies needed in construction of the house, especially brick for chimneys .
Treasurer ' s & Comptroller's Paper s , Port Records , Port Beau£ort, State
Archives, Raleigh, hereinafter cited as Port Beaufort Records. Given time
for delays , Hessel is probably accurate in her claim that the house was not
ready for occupancy until late 1784 or early 1785 . Profil e of a Patriot,
99- 100.
26 Based on birthdates of children taken from family records and recorded
by Marybelle Delamar, "John Wright Stanley of New Bern, North Carolina, and
Philadelphia, Pa." (Unpublished typescript in Genealogy Branch, State Lib­rary
, Raleigh, n .d . ) , 14, hereinafter cited as Delamar, "John Wright Stanley."
See also Carraway, The Stanly Family, 21, 22. Three children had died in
•
•
childhood before the house was built •
27 The announcement of Stanly's death appeared in the State
Gazette of North Carolina (Edenton) , June 18 , 1789 . That of his wife
Ann in the July 23 , 1789 issue. Both are transcribed in Delamar , " John
Wright Stanley ," 12 , 13 . See also William Attmore , Journal of a Tour to
Nor t h Ca r oli rta by William Attmore, 1787 . Edited by Lida Tunstall Rodman .
J ames SpiUn t Historical Publicitions ( Chapel Hill: Published by the
University , 1922), 21 - 22 , hereinafter cited as Attmore , Journal .
28 Edith Tunis Sale. Interiors of Virginia Houses of Colonial Times
(Richmond: William By r d Press , 1927) , 39- 40 , 90 , 95 , 282 , 287 , 408 , 417 ,
hereinafter cited as Sale , VirR,inia Houses . See Appendix D-12 of this
report .
29 Sale, Virginia Houses, 287, 417 . See also Appendix D- 12 of this . report .
30 Compare plans in Appendix D- 12 .
31
sale, Virginia Houses, 39- 40 . For exterior similarity to Stanly
House , see p. 38 and Appendix D-20 of this report .
32 Waterman, Early Architecture of North Carolina , 34 .
33 see Appendix D- 12.
34 Attmore , Journal, 20 - 21 . See also earlier reference in text and
fn . 29.
35 Craven County Rec or ds , Estates Papers, John Wright Stanly , State
Archives , Raleigh, Inventory taken by Thomas Turner, 20th July 1789 , pp.
12 - 13, hereinafter cited as Inventory .
36 Inventory, 5 , 6, 7 , 13.
37 Inventory , 5 , 6 , 7, 11.
38 Inventory, 4 , 15, 16, 17 .
20
39For dishes stored in fruit baskets, see Inventory, 9 , in Appendix B.
40
Inventory, 5, 6 , 7 , 11; and Hessel , Portrait of a Patriot, 83 . For
use of mahogany in Philadelphia interiors , see Russell Hawes Kettell (ed . ) ,
Early American Rooms (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1967 [ unabridged
repr int of 1936 edition]) , annotated illustrations in chapter "The Grand Man ­ner
in Phila delphia , " 115- 118 , hereinafter cited as Kettell , Early Amer ican
•
•
21
Rooms. See also Appendix D-18 of this report . On June 21, 1785, Stanly
imported windsor chairs and household furniture, some of which are prob­ably
the mahogany furnishings in the inventory . Port Beaufort Records.
41 Inventory, 5, 6, 7.
42 Kettell, Early American Rooms, 115- 118 . See Appendix D-18 of this
PC I report .
43 Based on analysis of inventory. Pages 1-5 (top) are clearly kitchen
items . Pages 5- 13 (top 3 items) all seem to be in main house. Pages 13- 15
appear to be commercial goods and furnishings for an office , suggesting
some type of storage outbuilding. Pages 16-18 (top) have items clearly be­longing
in a stable, and interspersion of household goods suggests storage.
Pages 18-28 are miscellaneous items and entries obviously associated with
Stanly ' s plantation on the Trent River which supplied many of the household
needs. The last page is a listing of wearing apparel. See Appendix B.
44 sanborn Map and Publishing Co . "New Berne, North Carolina , 1888, "
hereinafter cited as Sanborn Map . See Appendix C- 3.
45 See copy of map in Appendix C-4 .
46Photograph printed in The Image of War: 1861- 1865. Vol. III The
Embattled Confederacy. Edited by William C. Davis and Bell I. Wiley.
(Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1982), 186. See Appendix
D-1 of this report.
47 Compare Sanborn Map , 1888, and 1862 photograph . Appendixes C- 3 and
D- 1.
48 Inventory, 13 - 15.
49 See John J . G. Blumenson, Identifying American Architecture (Nash-ville:
American Association for State and Local History , 1977) , 19; and
Alonzo Thomas Dill, Jr. " Tryon ' s Palace: A Neglected Niche of North Carolina
History. " The North Carolina Historical Review, XIX (April , 1942) , 119- 146,
inserted building specifications .
50 sanborn Map , 1888. See also Appendix C- 3. This building appears to
be on the lower half of the block on the Sanborn Map, but Broad Str eet was
widened by the 1880s, thus taking part of the lower half. In the 1780s, that
structure, if original , would have been on Stanly's property .
51 Sanborn Map , 1888 . See Appendix C-3 .
52 Inventory, 16-17.
ing is barely visible but
photograph .
See Appendix B. See also Appendix D-1. The build­can
be defined under magnification in the original
•
•
22
53 Inventory, 17.
54c~rraway, The Stanly Family , 41-42; and Waterman , Early Architecture
in ~orth Car6l!~a, 33-34." '
55Attmore, 'Joutnal, 16. Modern equivalency estimated on value of silver
on the last day of 1986, which was $5.40 a troy ounce. That figure was mul­tiplied
by the number of troy ounces in the 1785 value given by Attmore,
which was computed from the relationship of the silver dollar to the pound
sterling in 1785. See Clark, State Records, XXIV, 486 .
56Joseph A. Hoskins (comp . ), President Washington's Diaries 1791 to
1799 (Summerfield, N. C.: By the author, 1921), 25, hereinafter cited as
Hoskins, Washington's Diaries; and Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (eds.),
The Diaries of Georg'e ·washington . Vol. VI, January 1790TDecember 1799
(Charlottesville: Un"fver"s'ity Press of Virginia, 1979), 98, hereinafter cited
as Jackson and Twohig, Diaries.
57
Based on general reading of journal. For a specific instance of dis­comfort
and inconvenience, see entry for April 19 in Hoskins, Washington's
Diaries, 20. This was a reference to a public house kept by one Allen,
probably Shadrack Allen, about fourteen miles from Greenville. See Jackson
and Twohig, Diaries, 115.
58Ho s k 1· ns, Wa s h. ' D . . 21 .. 1n~ton s 1ar1es, •
59 Issue of May 13 , 1791. Microprint copy of newspaper at East Carolina
University, Greenville.
60Archibald Henderson, Washington ' s Southern Tour, 1791 (Boston and New
York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923), 93- 94, hereinafter cited as Henderson,
Southern Tour . Henderson quotes directly from the lodge minutes which were
"still preserved at New Berne."
61Dill, "Eighteenth Century New Bern. A History of the Town and Craven
County 1700-1800 ... Part VIII. - New·.. Bern a:t: Century's End . The North Carolina
Historical Review, XXIII (October, 1946), SaS-520, hereinafter cited as Dill,
"New Bern at Century's End . "
62Dill, "New Bern at Century's End, " 524. Dill quotes from The Diary of
Francisco de Miranda (Tour of the United States) 1783-1784, p. 4, as edited by
W. S. Robertson.
63J. F. D. Symthe, A Tour in the United States of America (London, 1784),
I, 159-160, II, 89, hereinafter cited as Smythe, Tour in the U.S.; Attmore,
Journal , 16, 20-21; and Griffith J. McRee, Life and Correspondence of James
Iredell (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 2 vols., 1857), I , 392, 472 .
• 64 oill ' " New Bern at Century ' s End ," 524 .
65 oill, " New Bern at Century ' s End ," 514 .
66Henderson, Southern Tour , 92. The footnote is unclear as to where
Henderson found the information concerning the delivery to Stanly . Rev.
23
L . C. Vass , History of the Presbyterian Church in New Bern , N. C. (Richmond:
L. c . Vass , 1886) , hereinafter cited as Vass , Presbyterian Church in New
Bern , quoted Washington ' s reply but has no other information .
67 see Gertrude Carraway, " The John Wright Stanly House, New Bern,
N. C. , " p. 2 . Typescript prepared for Archives and History, Raleigh,
August 24, 1966. Copy in Research Branch, Division of Archives and History,
Raleigh. Vass , Presb.z_terian Church in New Bern , 94, and Carraway, " The John
Wright Stanly House, New Bern, N. C.," p. 2, and The Stanly Family , 14, 15 , 18.
admit a dependence on Whitford . Charles Hallock, " President Washing t on in
Newbern," Southern States, II (May , 1894) , 148 , uses phrases that appear
earl ier in Whitford ' s writings though no reference to Whitford is made. Hen­derson,
Southern Tour , 88 -89~ quotes from the Hallock article which was ob­viously
based on Whitford's work . In his co-authored work , Old Homes and
Gardens of North Carolina (Photographs by Bayard Wooten), plate 8 , Henderson
attributes his information to Whitford ' s writings.
68 Smythe , Tour in the u . s. , II , 89 .
-
•
•
•
Selected Bibliography
Attmore, William . Journal of a Tour to North Carolina by William Attmore ,
1787. Edit ed by Lida Tunstall Rodman . The James Sprunt Historical
Pu blications , vol . 17 , No. 2 . Chapel Hill: Published by the Univer­sity,
1922 .
Bennett, George Fletcher . Early Architecture of Delaware. Wilmington:
Historical Press , Inc ., 1932.
Blumenson , John J. G. Identifying American Architecture. Nashville :
American Association for State and Local History, 1977.
Carraway, G. "The John Wright Stanly House , New Bern, N.
prepared for Archives and History , August 24, 1966 .
Bran ch, Division of Archives and History , Raleigh .
C." Typescript
Copy in Research
Carraway , Gertrude S . The Stanly (Stanley) Family and the historic John
Wright Stanly House . New Bern: Tryon Palace Commission, 1969 .
Craven County Records
Deeds
Estates Papers
Inventories of Estates
Wills
Cross , Jerry L . " North Carolina Cur r ency : Chaos and Depreciation 1777-
1782 ." Report compiled for Research Branch, Division of Archi ves and
History, Raleigh, 1984 .
Delamar , Marybelle . " John Wright Stanly of New Bern , No rth Carolina, and
Philadelphi a , Pa ." Unpublished typescript on file in Genealogy Branch,
State Library, Raleigh, n . d .
Dill , Alonzo Thomas , Jr . " Eighteen t h Century New Bern : A History of the
Town and Craven Coun ty 1700-1800. 11 The North Carolina Historical Review .
Par t . VII , New Bern During the Revolution , XXIII (July, 1946) , 325- 359 ;
Part VIII , New Bern at Century ' s End , XXIII (October, 1946) , 495 - 535 .
Governor Tryon and His Palace, Chapel Hill : The
University of North Carolina Press , 1955 .
" Tryon ' s Palace : A Neglected Niche of No r th Caro­lina
History . " The Nor th Carolina Historical Review, XIX (April, 1942) ,
119- 167.
Dunlap ' s American Daily Advertiser . Philadelphia. May 13 , 1791. Microprint
copy at East Carolina University . Greenville .
Fouts, Raymond , ed . Abstracts from the North Carolina Gazette of New Bern,
North Carolina 1791- 1798. 2 vols . N. p ., o. . d. Filed in Genealogy Branch,
State Librar y, Ralei gh •
Gray , 0. w. A New Map of New Bern, 1882 .
•
•
•
Green, John B. III. A New Bern Album: Old Photographs of New Bern, North
Carolina and the Surrounding Countryside. New Bern: Tryon Palace
Commission, 1985 .
Hallock, Charles. "President Washington in New Bern." Southern States,
II (May, 1894), 148-149.
Henderson, Archibald. Washington' s Southern Tour , 1791. Boston and New
York: Houghton and Mifflin Company, 1923.
Henderson, Archibald and Bayard Wooten. Old Homes and Gardens of North
Carolina. Chapel Hill: The Garden Club of North Carolina, 1939.
Hessel, Mary Stanley. Profile of a Patriot: The Story of John Wright
Stanly, Revolutionary War Privateer. Edited by Ann Ward Little. New
Bern; Tryon Palace Commission, 1983.
60
Hopkins, Jos . A., camp . President Washington ' s Diaries 1791- 1799. Summer­field,
N. C.: By the author, 1921.
Image of War: 1861- 1865. Vol. III, The Embattled Confederacy.
William C. Davis and Bell I. Wiley. Garden City, N. Y.:
Company, 1982 .
Edited by
Doubleday &
Jackson, Donald and Dorothy Twohig, eds . The Diaries of George Washington .
Vol . VI, January 1790-December 1799.
Press of Virginia, 1979 •
Charlottesville: Uni versity
Keith, Alice Barnwell, ed. The John Gray Blount Papers. Vol. 1, 1764-1789.
Raleigh: State Department ;f Archives and History, 1952.
Kettell, Russell Hawes, ed. Early American Rooms . New York: Dover Publi­cations
, Inc., 1967. Unabridged reprint of 1936 edition.
Kimball, Fiske. Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the
Early Republic . New York: Charles Scribner ' s Sons , 1922.
McRee, Griffith J. Life and Correspondence of James Iredell . 2 vols . New
York: D. Appleton and Company , 1857 .
Sale, Edith Tunis. Interiors of Virginia Houses of Colonial Times. Rich­mond:
~-lilliam Byrd Press , 1927 .
Sanborn Map and Publishing Co . New Berne, North Carolina, 1888 , 1893, 1898,
1904, 1908 .
Sauthier, C. J. A Plan of the Town of Newbern in Craven County, North Caro­lina.
Survey 'd & Drawn in 1769, by C. J . Sauthier.
S~ythe , J . F. D. A Tour in the United States of America. 2 vols. London ,
1784 .
Vass, Rev . L. c. History of the Presbyterian Church of New Bern, N. C •
Richmond : L. C. Vass, 1886.
Waterman , Thomas Tileston. The Dwellings of Colonial America. Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press, 1950 .
•
•
•
Waterman , Thomas Tileston and Frances Benjamin Johnston . The Early Archi­tecture
of North Carolina: A Pictorial Survey. Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press , 1941.
Whitford , John D. "A History of the Biblical Recorder and Baptists in New
Bern." Unpublished manuscript, ca. 1900, in John D. Whitford Papers ,
P. C. 89, State Archives, Raleigh •
61
•
APPENDIXES
•
' .
1
• 0:( 5 .0:- u?J
F\ (~ {-, 5 )'
A. SEIECTIC!lS FROM
JOURiiAL OF A TOUR TO NORTI-1 CAROLINA
BY WilLIAM ATIMORE. 1787
EDITED BY
LIDA nJNSTALL RODMAN
•
J
PREFA
The "Journal of a Tour to Nort.h •
Attmore, of Philadelphia, was a che
granddaughter, the late Miss RehE
N.C. She was a real "Belle of the J
person reflected the cha.nn of that cb
hood that authors delight to picture
Thomas Attmore of Devonshire, 1
born about 1692, who l'emoved to
grandfather of William Attmor e, me
firm of "Attmore & Kaigher." ]a.
Attmore came to North Carolina to
and to obtain new business. While
of which some parts have e'l"idently
to form an interesting narrath·e. Tb
manuscript is clear and beautiful, a
it had been penned yesterday instead
the paper has become faded and torn
On this "tour," or a subsequent en
Sallie SitgreaYes, the captinting da1
whom he was married March 18, 17
in 1800, and was buried there.
The names of some of the descend
Sallie SitgreaYes who have lh•ed in )
years are:
1Tbe nam~ of William S ltpt'ne. oeeun an
Lords ProJlTie~rs In 1755. (Col. ~. •ol. V
his de~tndant~ and rHided ID Naw Bun: I
attainment&. Wh~ler' e hietory· n .ra "he WI
Con~:Tt6S in 1776. in CaptaiD Cuael'e ('OII)j)U
Augnot 17SO, •• aid to Oo•ernor Ca...-ell . 1
Conrrt41 in 1784. and from 17S7 ~ 17S9 ID
was atltoolntf'd U. S. Di•trlrt Judr;e of Nol1h C.
•ate journal hu the followinr:-'1789. Ba.,.
a n ry· clntr rt~~tltman. of coocl deponmut,
hie IJf', and alloold he ti'fe lone enouch, bt ·
Spai ~~:ht and Blount ron~n rrlnlt, ht .,.... nom
where he lies horied." (Wheelu'a Hilt. p 11
/
16 JAMES SPBUNT HlsTOBJCAL PoBI:JCATIONs
This liouse was formerly the residence af the Governors of this
Country, as well as the place where the Legislature sat, to trona­act
their business-It is somewhat out of repair at present, and the
Legislature, not meeting at this time in Newbern, the only use now
made of it is, the Town's people use one of the Ha1ls for a Danc­ing
Room & One of the other Rooms is used for a School Room.
The only inhabitants we found about it were the Schoolmaster aud
one little boy in the palace, school being out. And in the Stables
2 or 3 Horses who had taken Shelter there from the bleakness of
the Wind. The Ki11g of G. Britain's Arms, are still suffered to
appear in a pediment at the front of the Building; which con­sidering
the independent spirit of the people averse to every ves­tige
of Ro,ralty appears &mething strange-
We returned to :Mr. Green's, where I drank Tea with the ladies.
:Miss Cogdell's Sister called in the evening; And two Gentlemen
came in- I was introduoed to :Mrs. Stanly-And accompanied the
Ladies with several Gentlemen, as far as my way went ~here I
bid them Adieu for the evening. r Oue instance of the vicissitudes of human affairs; is exhibited
in the situation of things at the palace, which from being the seat
of a little Court, under the regal Government; is now become the
seat of a petty Schoolmaster with his little subjects, another in­stance
occurs in the person of :Mr. Jno. W. Stanly', the husband
of :Mrs. Stanly already mentioned; this :Man of whom the nrst
knowledge I had, was, his being confined a prisoner in the Goal
of Philadelphia for debt, upon his liberation removed to this
Country, where by a Series of fortunate events in Trade during
the War he acquired a great property, and ha.s built a house in
Newbern where he resides, that is truly elegant aud convenient;
at an expense of near 20,000 Dollars-He has a large Wharff and
•John Stanly oft~n a member of the wrl•laturc fi'Oill Craven, and a member of
Congreu froru 1801 10 11109. He became enK•ked in a political eon~roYeray with
Oo• ernor Rlch•rd Dobba 81•aigbt In 1802 which uofor;·un.ate.ly tenninated in a duol
in wbieb Oo•eroor 8pa~hl r eceived bla death wound.
The beautiful bouae built by Mr. Stanly at •u~h a larro expendllure, for that day.
Ia atill etandinc, and is an ornament r.o the town of New Bern. It Ia cleaeribed aa
'"the bouae In • ·hicb Oeorge Wa•hincton was entertained In 1791. AJld. wher& lolr.
Stanly rne ho.pllablo welron•e to Oeo. Natba.nael Groene. and mado a loan to b.lm
of fonv t.boutand pounds for the o~eEaitiea of bi• autrerinc aoldiera of the Revo­huion:
• !l 16 no•• owned by Roo. Jamta A. Bryan. who aened u a ~:apta ln In the
Confederate Army.
..... ,.. ... :••• ""'-''..., ........ ..,, ... ...., ............. ,
Raleigh
JouRNAL oF A ToUR ro NoJtTa 0A.BOLnu 17
Distillery near his house; upon Neuse River side of the Town-
. and a nne pl~ntation with sixty Slaves thereon.- ..J
One circumstance deserves to be recorded to his honour-Altho'
brought to Philadelphia from Honduras a Prisoner arbitrarily;
and an his arrival sent to Goal by the person who brought him by
force yet 'Upon his getting into affluent circumstances, he gener--·
ously relieved the pecuniary distresses of that very person after­wards;
the more meritorious, as upon a settlement of Accounts
with that Man, it was found that he owed him nothing, but on
the contrary that person was in his Debt- Yr. Wright Stanly
brother to Johu invited me to spend ll Week with him at a Farm
about 13 Miles from Newbern, where he promises me the diversion
of Deer Hunting and driving.
Saturday, N overn:ber 24. Races again today, four Horses
started; a mistake happen'd, the Horses being nearly abreast some
of the people balloed, "set off," "go," &c. which the riders sup­posed
to be Orders from the proper judges; they set off, and run
the course with great eagerness, the blunder created some anger
and a good deal of Mirth. The· Riders were young Negroes of
13 or 14 years old who generally rode bareback.-
! have attcudcd the Races yesterday and today rather from
motives of curiosity than any love to this Amusement, and tltink
I shall hardly be prevailed ou to go ten Steps in future to see any
Horse Race-The objections and inconveniences attending this
kind of Amusement, obvious to me, are,
1st. Large numbers of people are drawn from their business, oc­cupations
and labour, which is a real loss to their families
and the State.
2d. By wagering and ·betting; much quarreling wrangling, Anger,
Swearing & drinking is created and takes place, I saw it on
the present occasion prevalent from the highest to the lowest
- I saw white Boys, and Negroes eagerly betting 1/ 2.f a
quart of Rum, a drink of Grog &c, as well as Gentlemen bet­ting
high-
3
•
·'
20 J AllES SP.BUNT HlsToJUo.AL Ponuc.&TJONS
Tuuiiay, N pvemb~r 27. Nothing worth remarking.­Wedne.
tday, November 28. Breakfasted with J ohn Green­About
11 O'Clock Capt. John Jones & the older Mrs. Blackledge
arrived in Gnrlln€s Sloop from Philadelphia.-six day's passage.
About noon met Mr. John Stanly in Church Street, be tald me
he was going to look for me to give me an invitation to dine t~
morrow at his house.
I gave him to understand that I expected to leave Newbern ta­wards
Evening this day-He then aak'd me to go t.o his house &
take a Glass of Wine-We had· a variety of Chat-Engaged to
dine with him tomorrow if I don't leave town-Went to see Capt.
Jones at Jno. Green's was introduced ta his Mother-in-law. In
the Evening he & Mr. Green called at my quarters, w~ere I gave
them punch-Saw N. Smith today at his Store-! am to expect
trouble, I see, in settling with him. R. Blackledge set off for
Tarhorough early this Morning. H. Harris and I had a long
conversation in the Afternoon at my quar,ters, tllis & an appea~
ance of rain prevents my setting aut for Washington.- r Thursday, November 29. We.nt at two O'Clock to Mr. John W.
Stanly's to dine, he had also invited Judge Spencer", and Yr.
Iredell'" nn eminent Lawyer, Mr. Thomas Turuer, Mr. William
Shepard .. and Mr. Bryan were there. The Ladies present were
Mrs. John W. Stanly, Mrs. Wright Stanly and Mrs. Green, the
widow of Mr. James Green-The Court holding late kept us wait­ing
for the Judge & Lawyers. I had a long tete a tete Conversa­tion
with Mr. Jahn W. Stanly before Dinner ; about half past four
the Judge and Mrs. Iredell came, then we sat down to Dinner.
Had a long discourse with Judge Spencer on the subject of Paper
Money & c. I do not like his ideas, he contends that the Country
"Judf;f' Samut l S1•encu of Anson county ht ld many olll«a under the Colonial
10•~rnment, and waa 01111 of th• thr,_ Judcu of the lluperior Couna Gut elec:ed
und&r the eonl tilutio.n In 1777.
"Mr. lredeU emlgrat~ c.o Cbowan county from En1laud when 17 yurs old. lie
atudied law under Go•. Samuel Johnaton and married hit oi>tu , Hann11b. He b.­came
a very dietin~'-hecl dt l~e.n of !'."onb Carolina. He held o"'lce aucceS8iY~Iy ••
member of tho Auembly, Judce of the Superior Coun., Altorney Otneral of the State
and. lator, waa appointed by George Waahinlt10n Aaroelale Ju .. ice of the Su!Jrerne
Court ol the Unlled St.ate.. In tbe preaidenUal elecllon of 17116 be received thru eled. 8.: Wil liam
B.; and Jamaa B. She1uord ; and of Ka.ry, the wlto of Hon. Jobu H. Bryan of RaleiJb. •
I
' i
f I J
I
I
I •
JorraNAL OF A Toua TO No.BTR O.uoLINA 91
cannot do without a Paper Medium, and that the value of this
medium shall be regulated.from time to time by a Scale of value
or depreciation. I am afraid the Ladies were ill entertained
while they staid with ua.-We dropt the subject on going into the
Tea Room, where more general topica took place-A while alter
Tea, I took my lea\·e and retired to my Quarters- J
Friday, November 30. I staid in Newbern till about 3 O'Clock
in the Afternoon, then set off alone, for W aahington-Coming out
of Town I heedlessly mias'd my way, and rode about two Milea
before I waa sensible af my being wrong-Had I only thrown the
reins on the Horse's Neck he wou'd probably have gone right, as
he knew the way home to W aahington better than I, and it ia abo
probable that he had not BUch a variety of ideaa to embarrass hi.a
mind.-The Road from Newbern to Waahingtan i.e thro' a Tract
of Oountry mostly a fiat and level body of Land, the Soil a whitiah
Sand, the timber is mostly Pines; in aome places the Pines mixt
with a few Oaks; in one place the &ad goes a short distance
thro' a Swamp of large Cypress Trees, and small canes, with
which are intermingled a variety af Shrubs and Vines growing out
of the watcr.-The Road is partly cover'd with the dead spines
or leaves of the Pines, of a rust colour-Abundance of the Trees,
more particularly the Oaks, have large quantities of a long silver
grey colour Moss hanging from the branches, it grows often 3, 4
or 5 feet long and lookB li.ke Streamers hanging from the bougb-:­Tbis
Moss is good food for Cattle, wha are generally very fond of
it-In t.he Winter when Fodder is short the people cut down the
Trees cover'd with it for the Cattle to browse.-About dark I
arrived at Neuse River, whero giving one or twa halloes that made
the Woods echo, the Ferryman on the other aide heard and
nn.swr'd me-Then came over in the Ferry Scow and took me
across to the Ferry House a little distance from the River, where
Mrs. Curtis gave me hospitable entertainment,-There is a long
Causeway ta pass on the South side of Neuse River very bad in
wet Seasons- "
SaturdQ~y, Decem.ber 1. After Breakfast I set out alone for
Washington, after riding a Mile or two, looking down upon the
•
B. INVENTORY: PERSONAL ESTATE OF JOHN WRIGHT STANLY , 17t39
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EAR LY ARCH I TECT~RE OF DELA \V ARE
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EARLY ARCHI TECTURE OF DELAWARE
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12 . Contemporary Floor Plans
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LIBRARY
DRAWING
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13 . Graeme Park , interior
Figure 79· The drawing-room, Graeme Park · · tl
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14 . Be lmont, interior
Belmont, Fairm ount Park, Philadelphia.A amalJ but hi~hl y architectura1 mansion with only one
major room. There are two bedrooms above and eight lighted closets. Philadelphia Museum.
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15. Dulaney House, interior
Dulaney bouse, Alexandria. A post-colonial interior in the mid-Georgian tTadition. The ro()rnS of
the Dulaney house, beautifully designed and executed in Sir William Chambers' style. have been
carefully restored and furnished in the period. / . 0. BroJtrup.
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16. Robert Townsend Toe House
interior
Robert Townsend Hoe house, A1exandria. A quiet paneled room, with " ·ell-designed and beauti­fullr
~xecuted architectural features. . . Sr. Loui$ Af1ueum.
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M11Je11m of Art in
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WALLA
MAHOGANY WTNG CH AJR PORTRAJT OF
CHIPPENDALE STYLE MRS. MARGARET WTLLINC HARE
PH(LAO£LPHI.A. C. 1770 .BY PEALE
ATrRlBUTEOTO BENJAMIN RANDOLPH
TILT-TOP TABLE
CHIPPENDAL2 STYLE
PHlLADELPHI.A. 1760- 1775
PAIR OF CARVED AND GILDED MIRRORS
CHINESE C HIPPENDALE STYLE
ENGLISH. c. J 760
MAHOGANY WJNG C HAlll
CHIPPENDALE STYLE
PHILADELPHIA. c. 1770
u
WALLB
SILK BROCADE CUJlTArNS
CONSOLE TABLE
MAHOGANY WITH MARBLE 1'0P
CHIPPENDALE STYLE
PHILADELPHIA. C. 1770
MAHOCANY SlDE CHAlll
CHIPPENDALE STYLE
PHILA.DELPHIA. C. 1775
ATTRIBUTED TO BENJAMIN RANDOLPH
MAHOCANY SIDE CHAIR
WITH LABEL OF MAKER;
BENJAMIN RANDOLPH
PHILADELPHIA. C. 177 5
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01~3456
SIDE CH AIRS
WALNUT
PHILADELPHIA
2nd quarter 18th C e11tury
BRASS C~IANDELlER
ENCLISH
21ui half 18th CetJtury
LOOK INC-CLASS
MAHOGANY, CARVED AND CILDED
AMERICAN. Middle of 18th Cenltlry
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TALL CLOCK
WALNUT VENEER ON
PINE CASE. e. I 725
19. Wythe House, front view
Th,· c.·orgt Wyllrt H o~t. as TUtlltly rl'stort d t o its original lints.